Double Identity
by Harry Potter Fan 1994
Summary: Kory searches for answers to the mysteries of her past, befriending a Gothic heiress, a prankster, a shopping fanatic, an athlete, and a national heartthrob. Starfire steals to survive, and love catches her unexpectedly. So different, yet...NWxSF RxBB CxB
1. Prologue

I know I said I wasn't going to have a ton of stories out altogether anymore, but I had an idea for this one and I just wanted to see how it would turn out. I'm not really trying for Sci-Fi here, so sorry if the details of the lab are lacking (I've never seen one, movie or otherwise.)

The Italics is supposed to be there. The entire story won't be, I promise.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned below.

* * *

_"Dr. Travers, project STAR is not responding. Another failure," stated a harried scientist, scribbling the report on to his clipboard. Travers growled, his fist slamming down on his desk._

_"No! I WILL NOT, under any circumstances, accept another failure! You WILL give the project our entire attention, and the budget will not be spared for it. I don't care what you have to do, we WILL have a success to report to the government!"_

_The first scientist shuffled out, terrified by his boss's reaction. "Of course, sir. Every single penny will go to his assignment. I'll give her a higher dose of--"_

_"How many times have I told you, Johnson?" Travers interrupted in a cold voice. "It. Not 'her.' It."_

_"But she--"_

_"IT!"_

_Johnson scurried out of the office as fast as his old legs could take him. Eventually, he ended up in front of a huge test tube with a glowing red liquid filling it up, hiding whatever was inside. In front of the sixteen foot tall tube was another scientist wearing goggles and examining the panels of bright, flashing buttons in front of him. "Carter, we need a higher dose of xenothium for...it." Carter looked at him as if he was insane._

_"Are you joking? This is already unstable enough--"_

_"Just do it! Dr. Travers ordered it! Where's Chang? Xenothium expert, my foot, all he does is sit around! CHANG!"_

_An irritated, four-foot tall man waddled into the picture, also wearing goggles and holding out a blueprint. "What?"_

_"We need more xenothium! Where's your store?" Chang scowled, grabbing a couple of tubes of the same glowing red substance out of his belt and standing on his tip toes to hand it to Johnson. It was times like these he wished unsafe xanothium experimenting hadn't stunted his growth._

_Unknown to him, his awkward grabbing for the tubes while holing the blueprint had loosened the belt, and it fell to the floor._

_"There. Only that and no more. Now leave me in peace, I need to experiment!" The man waddled off, muttering darkly under his breath._

_"Yeah? And what do you think we're doing?" Carter yelled after him. "Stupid old midget."_

_Johnson tried not to smile, but failed miserably. "Whoops, I must have dropped a couple. That man is so short, I can't even grab everything out of his hands." The two shared a chuckle as Johnson emptied all the xenothium into a glass tube that connected the panel to the huge test tube. _

_"It's a strange thing Dr. Travers hasn't fired him yet. You know, it's--" Carter stopped, his eyes widening in awe. "Johnson! Look!"_

_Johnson turned to the tube, and was just as startled as Carter. Bright, neon green eyes were staring back at him. He could not see the head or body, or the iris and pupil, for that matter. Just bright, bright green amongst all the red. "Eyes, Carter! They are eyes!"_

_"She's waking up! It worked! She's waking up!" Carter yelled enthusiastically. Scientists from all over the lab turned to look, taking off their goggles and clapping._

_"It," Johnson muttered. "Not 'she.'" No one heard him._

_All of a sudden, the xenothium in the tube turned as bright a green as those eyes, and they couldn't see the eyes anymore, camoulflaged as they now were. Carter frowned. "Doctor, I don't think that's--" _

_The contents of the tube swirled, similar to the effect of the water when it is spun in a cup, but much more sinister. The scientists all began to back away as the storm inside grew to a ferocious level._

_"She's going to...!" That was the last thing anyone ever said in that lab.

* * *

_Confusing? More detail will be given on what just happened later...way later...


	2. Chapter 1

Hopefully this clears up a few of the issues...not all, of course, where would a story be in that?

Thanks so much to all the reviewers! **RavenSis, jumpstarter, tennisgal456, BerryDrops, SuPeR HyPeR chick 101, raeXXstarry, cartoonfire, so not telling, shattered-hearts-602, xForeverLovex, lilacprincessmay, BeautiiQueen, lil love fan, SaoirseWaveglow, Sta-R-obin, **and** XxNightfirexX.**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything below.

* * *

_"Where are you taking me?" the five-year-old girl whimpered, clutching her stuffed ferret to her chest. The man she was addressing growled, ripping the animal out of her arms. He grabbed her hand and stalked out the door of the girl's former home and into a shiny black limo. _

_"Get in the car."_

_"No!" said the girl definiantly. "Mommy says never to go anywhere with strangers! I want Mommy!"_

_The man grabbed her crimson hair, pulling it towards the car as she cried out in pain. "Too bad. Mommy's dead, and so is Daddy. We own you now. You will obey my every order, or..." He yanked her hair again. "I'll make you pay."_

_She whimpered again, but didn't make another sound the entire car ride. The man was on the phone, speaking to someone she couldn't hear. Already, she knew this man was bad news. Her had a dark scowl permanently plastered to his face, and his shabby suit looked extremely out of place in the expensive limo. He glared at her while speaking, and the girl quickly looked away. _

_"...Right here, I've got the brat..."_

_"...Mr. Roth'll want her started immediately..."_

_"...Sorry, Dr. Travers, of course, your orders..."_

_"...Nearly there..."_

_The car slowed to a halt, and the girl was shoved out roughly. "Start walking. Fast." She did as she was told without hesitation, minding her burning scalp. A gigantic building stood before her, at least fifteen stories high with smokestacks on top. From the little reading she could do, she figured out that the first word up at the very top of the building said "Roth." The second was harder to sound out. "In," "dust," "tries." She had no idea what that meant._

_The man led her to an elevator and pressed the "emergency" button. Instead of an alarm sounding, the entire panel flipped around with only two buttons on the reverse side. One was "15" and the other was "Basement." The man pushed the latter, and the elevator jerked it's way downwards._

_When the doors opened, it wasn't your average basement that was revealed. A spotless white lab, with white-coated people bustling everywhere, lay before the mesmerized girl's eyes. She saw flashing buttons and glistening, slimy goo in containers of all sizes. The noise was a mild wind of tensed voices. She was kicked towards a large tube in the middle of the hubbub, which was currently being filled with an ominous red substance._

_"What now, Doctor?" the middle-aged man she'd grown to deeply despise asked one of the men in white coats._

_"Put her to sleep." The girl screamed as a giant needle approached her, but the man held her down as it pierced her neck. Everything went black._

Kory Anders woke in a cold sweat, shivering at her last memory before thirteen years of darkness.

* * *

"You're so sweet! Are you sure you're okay with going off to Jump by yourself? I could _always_ come with you, you know. I wouldn't mind at all. How could I, you're the sweetest thing! Always have a compliment for me! Be careful, Mr. Grayson, or I might think you're hitting on me," Katrina Moth simpered, attempting to wink and failing. She flipped her hair and strutted away, much to Richard Grayson's relief.

Dick didn't really know how he'd gotten stuck with "Kitten" at the dinner party his foster father, Bruce, was throwing. He'd made the mistake of taking her out on a date once, and she'd never stopped hounding him since. The girl had the brains of a pea, very possibly less, and all she wore was pink. He never wanted to see the stupid color again.

Kitten wasn't the only one. More than half of the female population of Gotham was out to get Dick Grayson, the gorgeous millionaire, for themselves. As if. They had a ten times better chance of winning the lottery twice in a row. He had supermodels at his feet twenty-four/seven. He had an actual bodyguard to get him through crowds if he decided to go out for a night or two, which didn't happen very often. He had the top job at the world's leading company secured. He had prime ministers and kings greeting him every time he went out of the country, even on vacation. He had all this, and he hadn't even inherited Bruce Wayne's fortune yet.

And frankly, he was sick of it.

He'd been trapped inside Wayne Manor for two weeks now, since there were mobs of women crowding the front porch after he admitted to the pestering media that he'd broken up with his girlfriend, the commisioner's daughter Barbara Gordon. The whole Manor was on code red security, and even then, bimbos like Kitten managed to get in and bug him about it. At a dinner party, though, he supposed it wasn't hard for even a Paris Hilton clone like herself to bribe those idiotic bodyguards into letting her in. As if they didn't get paid enough.

For once, would it be too much to ask to go out at night, by himself, and be left alone for a millesecond to do whatever he wanted? He wouldn't have to uphold the company's image, he wouldn't have to worry about disgracing Bruce, and he could just be...him. Or at least, the bad side of him, which had been bottled up for as long as he could remember. He hated reading about how he was voted not only Teen Heartthrob of the Year and Richest Teen Alive, but Model Citizen of Teenage Gotham as well. That wasn't true at all. Whatever he did, Bruce had made him do. Whenever he was handing a hundred thousand dollar check to an orphanage, it was Bruce right next to him saying, "Just keep smiling and nodding, it's all publicity, Dick." Same thing went when he "helped out" picking up litter from around Gotham's streets. It was disgusting, but Bruce was willing to sell him to keep Wayne Enterprises going. Some of his obsessiveness may have rubbed off on Dick, but not all. He wished, just one time, people wouldn't wave and clap when he went by, murmuring to their neighbors about how wonderful he was. Couldn't they understand, it wasn't _him!_ The guilt he'd felt over taking the title that probably belonged to anyone but him had long since given way to anger. Was everyone so stupid they couldn't recognize a normal person when they saw one? For goodness's sake, he wasn't a _god_.

There was a banging on the window of the dining room. "Dick! Dick! It's me, Iris! I'm your--" Iris was quickly shoved back into the crowd by a hulking bodyguard, and Dick sighed. Apparently, he couldn't even be on the first floor anymore.

Grabbing his laptop, he was about to run up the stairs before another crazed fangirl approached him, but was stopped by his adoptive father. "How long do you think this is going to go on?"

"Forever," Dick groaned. "I won't even make it on the plane to Jump. I'll be trampled with fangirls long before then."

Bruce chuckled. "You just _have_ to be so charming." Dick scowled.

Jump City. His (hopefully) getaway. Far from Gotham, maybe he wouldn't have quite as many people following him all the time. He'd be spending his entire senior year of high school there, living with one of his only trusted friends, Rachel Roth's, boyfriend. She would have had him, she had said, but her father was in a bad way since one of his factories blew up a few weeks ago. And when Tristan Roth was "in a bad way," not even Bruce Wayne questioned his decisions. Dick had never met Mr. Roth, but Bruce had said he was "intimidating." Hearing that word come out of Bruce's mouth was like the apocalypse. But Dick would put up with anything to get away from Gotham right now.

"You're packed, right, Dick? You can take the jet over instead, alright? I really don't think this crowd is going anywhere."

"Thanks." Bruce was about to walk away to talk to more guests, but stopped.

"I've got something to give you before you go. Make sure you check in with me."

* * *

Kory only had to walk five feet to get to her bedroom to her kitchen. Her house was small, but all she could afford. Still, it was better than the streets, what she'd been living on for the past few weeks. Everything was so confusing, her mind would oftentimes blank out with all the new information it had to remember. Still, she was managing. Just barely. At least, her mind seemed better adapted than it had before. She learned very, very quickly. Every single bit of her free time was spent studying to get her brain caught up with her age. She'd always been brilliant as a child, and boy, was it helping her now. It would take every fiber of her being to learn how to live on her own. If not, someone would find her, and she would be taken away to Roth Industries again... 

She had no memory of the past thirteen years, none at all. All she knew was that something had happened to her, something horrible, and there was a very good chance she would not survive in this virtually unknown world.

* * *

Sorry for the big paragraphs in Dick's POV. Kory's introductions are yet to take place, but I hope this has become a little bit less confusing. 


	3. Chapter 2

Okay, this is going to get slightly anachronistic, but please bear with me. I needed to put it in that order. It goes day, night, and back to the same day. I'm sorry about that.

Thank you to **SuPeR HyPeR chick 101, hollly, Crimson Black, jumpstarter, BerryDrops, tennisgal456, final frost bite fantasy, lil love fan, **and** cartoonfire** for reviewing. Also, thanks to everyone who PMed me to give a review because the reviews didn't work before.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or anyhing else mentioned below.

* * *

_Flashback_

_"What did you need to show me, Bruce?" Dick was in Bruce's room, a place he was rarely ever allowed in, even as a young adult. It was huge, bigger than most of the rooms at Wayne Manor, which were all bigger than the average master bedroom. But Bruce hardly decorated anything that guests weren't going to see, and it was rather bare._

_"Your parents, Dick. If you were still in the circus and everything...when you turned eighteen, your costume would've changed. It's this." Bruce handed him a paper bag, and Dick took it warily. His last memories of his parents were not so happy. They'd been murdered, their trapeze cut off the ceiling as their act went on. Dick screwed his eyes shut, forcing the painful images out of his mind. He'd seen it all, and hadn't talked about it in...ever._

_"Oh." _

_"Keep it clean. And stay out of trouble in Jump, will you?" Bruce said, 'moment' over. He walked back down to entertain his guests, and Dick pulled the costume out of his bag._

_End Flashback_

He'd liked it instantly. The blue and black, with the dark bird in the center. It matched his real personality, and clashed with his public one. A half-smile playing at the corner of his mouth, Dick shoved it back in the bag, turning to the window of the jet.

He landed in Jump City in fifteen minutes, and a growing sense of unease had formed in his stomach. What if he didn't like it there? Or worse, what if everyone knew him as the Wayne Enterprises mascot? He'd die of embarrassment on landing, especially because Rachel said she was bringing a few friends to meet him. What if he messed up in front of _them_?

"Please fasten your seatbelt, Mr. Grayson," stated the flight attendant. He nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. Might as well give this place a chance.

* * *

_The black-clad girl twisted and pulled at the lock on the safe, but it would not come undone. "Open!" she hissed at it, quiet enough so the owners of the said safe would not wake up. Her anger drowned away, surprisingly, and her hands began to feel quite warm. They were glowing._

_With a quiet shriek, she stumbled backwards, taking care not to bang into anything. What was this, some kind of illusion to ward off theives such as herself? If so, it was definitely working. The glow died away, and her body temperature returned to normal. Cautiously, she approached the lock yet again. It stayed latched innocently, much to her frustration. There wasn't a lock she couldn't get past. Somehow, she'd figure this out, no matter what fluorescent lighting the owners had decided to put up._

_Five minutes later, she was quickly running out of patience again. She growled, restraining herself from breaking the safe entirely. The glow happened again, only this time, the lock was in her hand, and it melted. Whatever that glow was, it melted the metal right out of her hands._

_Panic clawed at her insides, and she was about to wring her hands in worry, but decided against it. Who knew what that glow could do. Though it was not the time or place, she tried to recreate the situation and figure out a way to get past that deathly glow and to the money inside._

I was just standing. Like this. Two feet shoulder-width apart, crouched down a little. And I was shivering a little. It's pretty cold down in the cellar. And my hands were out like this on the...now melted...lock._ The setting was the exact same, but nothing happened. Nothing at all. _What am I missing? Why isn't this working?_ She thought for a minute, and then it hit her._ I was angry.

_It wasn't hard for her to get angry at all. All she had to think about was the complete unfairness she'd gone through, and what she'd been reduced to. She'd been homeless for so long, with no idea on how to support herself. She'd nearly starved. She'd nearly died of thirst. She'd very nearly killed herself. It all would have happened, if she hadn't gotten her act together at the last minute. _

_Now she was much better off. She had a home, she had a sufficient amount of food, running water, and electricity. All the money to support this was stolen. She was good, very good at what she did. And she hated it, but she had no other choice._

_Almost as soon as the anger sparked, so did her fingers. Even though she was expecting it, her surprise was great, but she fought to keep the glow there. She held her hands up to the safe, and pools of heated metal formed wherever she touched. In minutes, she had the entire safe on the ground as a liquid, the treasures inside untouched._

This is going to come in handy.

_She swiped the money, leaving quickly. She'd been in there for far too long, and she had what she needed. What reason was there to stick around?_

_On waking up, the owners would find that they'd been visited by the soon-to-be infamous master-thief that only worked at night, and burned any obstacles to get what she wanted. It was no wonder the media began to refer to her as "Star-fire."_

* * *

"Hey, Dick, how are you?" Rachel asked in her signature monotone as Dick stepped off the jet. He shrugged, shaking her hand.

"Alright. How about you, Rachel? Are these the friends you've been telling me so much about?" A scrawny one with rather pointy ears grinned at him.

"Name's Gar, I'm Rae's boyfriend. Nice to finally meet Dick Grayson. Rachel's dad talks a lot about how you'll never make it in the real world because you're just a prettyboy--" Rachel slapped her hand over Gar's mouth, but Dick laughed.

"I don't think I will, either, I guess I have something in common with him. Who knew?"

"Aw, come on, Rachel, you're dad's got it all wrong. Look at this guy, he's paler than you! You get out in the sun any? Don't tell me you don't know how to play football?" asked a tall, muscular African-American teen.

"Played QB on the varsity team last year. My best sport," Dick assured.

"Well, alright! Maybe we'll get someone who knows what he's doing this year. My name's Victor Stone, you can call me Vic. And my girlfriend here's Karen." Karen smiled warmly and shook Dick's extended hand.

"Nice to meet you. Just a warning, there are a lot of--"

"OMG! OMG! IT'S DICK GRAYSON! OVER THERE BY THE JET! I TOLD YOU HE'D BE HERE, MISSY! OMG!" Dick's eyes widened as he saw--literally--a stampede of girls heading for their group. Karen bit her lip.

"--fans."

Rachel stepped up in front of him, and the whole crowd stopped as one. With one ice-cold glare, they began to back away. Rachel held their frightened gazes, taking a step forward. Whispers of "It's that creepy Goth girl, we'd better watch out" and "Even Dick Grayson isn't worth putting up with Roth, Mandy" were heard all over the landing field as the girls broke into a run away from them. Dick's eyes went even wider, if possible, in amazement. _Never_ had he seen anything like it. Girls, running away from _him_. He was in heaven. Memories of the past two weeks at Wayne Manor seemed to grow distant immediately.

"How--"

Rachel smirked. "They hate me. Or at least, they can't understand how I can be rich, smart, and unpopular at the same time. Whatever. Saves you a bunch of trouble, doesn't it?" Dick nodded, still too mesmerized to speak. Gar, Vic, and Karen were cracking up behind them, but he didn't care. As long as he stayed around Rachel, he had nothing to fear in the fangirl field.

He was starting to like Jump City.

* * *

More intros next chapter...Sorry! I know how boring it can get, but that's the last intro chapter, I promise.


	4. Chapter 3

Wow, this took three hours to write...not as much as two months, but hey...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned below.

* * *

Dick had begun to take many excursions around Jump City, just to get used to the area. It was a nice place. California, of course, was _always_ a nice place, but it seemed as if the very sun smiled down on them every day, corny as it sounded. It was like nothing could go wrong here. At least, compared to Gotham, where _everything_ went wrong. All anyone ever saw on the news was crime, crime, and more crime. Another thing he was sick of. 

"Pay?" he heard an angelic voice ask. He turned around to see a redhead exiting a cab. She was absolutely beautiful, but Dick wasn't too dazed. He'd seen many beautiful women in his lifetime. What kept him staring was that she apparently had no idea what was going on.

"Yeah, pay. What'd you think, I was driving you around for fun? This is a taxi, lady. That's ten forty-three, pay up!" grumbled the driver, sticking his hand out the window.

"I apologize, I brought no money. Perhaps--"

The driver was furious. "What'd'you mean, you didn't bring money? What possessed you to get in a cab, then, huh? You've wasted twenty minutes of my time, and if I don't see dough in the next five seconds, I'll--"

"Here." Dick had no idea why he was helping out this girl, but as if on instinct, he'd stuffed his hand into his wallet and come up with a twenty. "Keep the change."

Both the driver and the girl were astonished. "You're Dick Grayson, you are! Wait 'til I tell Linda about this! I met Dick Grayson!"

"And you got on Dick Grayson's nerves," Dick commented coldly. So he wasn't all that unknown in Jump. Great. The driver gulped, speeding off, and he was left with the redhead he knew nothing about.

"Excuse me," she began, and Dick turned to her. "I...do not understand." He wasn't expecting that.

"Huh?" Very polite.

"I am afraid that I do not understand what has just happened. Why is the man angry?"

Dick blinked. "That's a taxi. It's a car you take to places that are too far to walk, if you don't have your own. You have to pay the driver at the end of the trip, though. Are you not from around here or something?" The girl bit her lip, her bright green eyes filled with something he could not quite describe.

"I am not."

"Oh. Is your family around, then? I know a little bit of the city, I could take you where you needed to go." Her eyes widened.

"Oh no, I do not wish to be such a burden! I thank you, for helping me, and hope I am able to pay you back someday."

"Don't worry about it..." She was already gone.

* * *

_"And you are?" growled Tristan Roth. He did not have time for anyone right now, especially midget men. He had a factory he needed to build up again. _

_The man who'd just walked into his office shifted, the bandages all over his body wrinkling and stretching again as he made himself comfortable. "I am Dr. Chang, your xenothium specialist. I was in the explosion five weeks ago."_

_Tristan snorted. "It took you five weeks to get from the outskirts of the city to the middle of it?"_

_Dr. Chang glared. "I was in the hospital for a time."_

_"There weren't any survivors."_

_"The project was illegal. I was not a listed worker, the rescue teams had no reason to search for me."_

_The man had a point. Tristan scowled with frustration. One lab accident. That was all it took to make him lose his mind. "Why are you here?"_

_"I managed to survive the accident because there is a small amount of xenothium in my blood, a blessing and a curse, if you will. It caused my growth to stunt, but it also, evidently, mutated my body to be...stronger than most humans. Similarly, the experiment had an excess of xenothium in her blood, after living inside of it for thirteen years. Before I passed out, I saw her escape. She was flying, sir."_

_"Flying?"_

_"Yes. She flew. Perhaps the impact of the blast. But even I don't know, and I have studied xenothium all my life. It is unstable and deadly, with properties we do not understand."_

_"So you're telling me that my experiment is on the loose?"_

_"Not only that, sir. You see, during the thirteen years we kept her, she was showing signs of regular development. By which I mean, she could possibly pass as a normal human being by action and speech."_

_"So?"_

_"So, she will become curious and wonder why the world around her has changed so much. Why everyone seems so much older, why _she _seems so much older. With this curiousity comes answers. If she recalls any memories of that lab, there is one person she can blame. And she may well have the power to get rid of him. Mr. Roth, you could be in great danger." The CEO raised an eyebrow, thinking it over. Chang was right. "She could possibly be after your blood at this moment. If I'm not mistaken, you have a daughter who knew about this project, yes?"_

_Tristan chuckled. "Rachel? She won't tell a soul, I've seen to that." Chang tried not to show any fear._

_"Just as well. Under threat of death, she might. But, if you were aware of all the experiment's known weaknesses..." Dr. Chang held up a folder with the words 'PROJECT STAR' stamped across the front. Tristan reached for it, but Chang held it back. "There is one condition."_

_"I should have known," Mr. Roth snarled. "Maybe I don't want to listen to your imbecilic conditions. I'm in no proven danger as of right now."_

_"Very well." Chang jumped off the chair, heading towards the doorway. When he reached it, though, he paused. "It is too bad. It was quite a small price to pay, too."_

_The little man had won. "What do you want?"_

_"All of your xenothium store."

* * *

_"Hey, you! Yeah, girl with the red hair! What're you doing out here, you should be in school!" a mustachioed man called.

The last time Kory had seen leaves turning different colors and falling to the ground was right before she had been taken. Everywhere she walked, all she heard was _crunch, crunch, crunch_. She had heard people call this 'fall.' It was very fitting, it seemed as though the sky itself was falling. It was so amusing, she regularly took walks outside just to see the beautiful colors on her breaks from reading.

She had become a voracious reader, and romance novels were the best. Just like the fairytales she remembered from so long ago, though it seemed like yesterday.

After being in a virtual coma for thirteen years, she was constantly amazed at the wonders of life. Like the leaves turning orange and red and yellow, for instance. She knew, from her reading, that it was because of the chlorophyl that leaves were green, and in the fall and winter they turned brown because there was not enough sun to make chlorophyl. But she remembered, from when she was much, much smaller, that someone had told her a fairy came every August and tapped a tree with her wand, and the leaves changed color on their own. She often found herself staring at a still-green tree, waiting for the magic to happen.

But never before had she been interrupted. The man that had done so was wearing a blue, button-down shirt that had a very shiny golden badge attached to the upper corner. It caught Kory's eye immediately.

"I...am sorry?" she tried. She tore her eyes away from the badge and forced herself to stare at him.

"Don't pull that with me. Trying to get away with playing hookey, now, are ya?" Kory sorely wished for a kind stranger to explain what was going on right now, like a boy had the other day.

"Hookey?" She sounded _so_ stupid.

"Yeah. Skipping school. It's against the law, girl." School...the word rang a bell...

"Oh!" Like kindergarten, where she was supposed to have been enrolled, before her entire mess. "School! I apologize, I was not aware it was mandatory." The man's gaze softened.

"You look like your from some other country. I've seen you around my post, so I figured you weren't on vacation. School's a choice, where you live, is it?" Kory had never lived anywhere but Jump City her entire life, and had no idea what he meant by 'post,' but went along with it.

"Yes it is."

"Alright. I'm guessing ya live around here, and you can see the high school from here, look." He pointed to a large, brown building to the south. "That's it right there. Tell yer parent's to enroll you, and if they have any questions, just ask at the office over there, okay?" Kory's throat clogged up. Another mention of her parents. Still, she nodded. "And if ya have any questions, you can come to that there police station and ask for Sergeant Dave." The man waved goodbye, and Kory waved back. Better go do what he told her. Getting in trouble with the law was not on the top of Kory's to-do list.

* * *

A couple of months passed, and things were going pretty great for Dick. His school was the best, everyone thought he was just another new student, and his new friends were amazing people. 

Rachel was of course, Rachel. She barely talked, except to exchange insults with Gar sometimes. Still, she was a great help in the beginning of the year, and not only in keeping away fangirls. Gar and Vic decided it would be hilarious to show Dick to his first 'classroom,' the janitor's closet. They even painted over the signs marking the bathroom doors, so Dick wandered into the girl's bathroom by mistake. Fortunately, the girls hadn't been too upset. Rachel, however, had been livid, and the two boys weren't able to see right for days. She was always helping him get to the right places, and dealing with Gar and Vic.

Karen, too. She kept her boyfriend semi-under control, as much as you can keep a guy three times your size and with three times your muscle under control. She treated them to regular shopping sprees, by which he meant, she went shopping and made everyone else tag-along and hold her bags if they weren't doing anything.

He and Vic were becoming fast friends, despite the pranks and jokes. Dick quickly learned that he would really have to work up to his best to upstage Vic in football. The guy was a maniac on the field. No one could throw as far, or as accurately, no one could kick as hard, and no one could run as fast as Vic. Dick was planning to beat that.

Gar was a different story. He was like the little brother Dick had never had, always the instigator. Every minute of Gar's was spent thinking up ways to make people trip, scream, jump, or otherwise cause them mild discomfort in a humorous manner. At least, every minute that wasn't spent bringing home wounded animals.

Living at the Dayton's was a far cry from Wayne Manor. The house was of average size, but it stank to high heaven. Rita Dayton, Gar's foster mother, did the best she could, but there were always animal droppings and dirty gym socks and month-old sandwiches everywhere. Gar was a nightmare to live with. Still, Dick helped as much as possible, and the house was actually starting to look less like a zoo. It came from living with two neat freaks, he had said.

No one ever questioned Gar's animal obsession, though, so Dick didn't either. It was only natural. Gar really had a way with all those critters. They never ran away from him like they did Dick, and Gar always seemed to know what was wrong with them and how to fix it. Dick even suggested that he buy a bunch of cages, so the animals could rest in there. His own little hospital...that kept the floor clean.

Dick had met a few more people at school, but these four were his best friends. He'd looked around for the girl who didn't know what a taxi was, but she hadn't been there. _Probably on vacation. She looked like she was from out of the country, even in California you can't get tanned like that. It's too bad...she was really pretty. _He pushed her out of his mind, and it was working for him so far.

Instead, he focused on his life right now. It was better than he could have imagined. He'd never been this close to a group of people before. It would be really nice, except...

"Dick, we need to get you a girl," Vic noted.

"'S okay, I don't really think--"

"Come on, man. Gar has Rae, and I've got Karen. You've gotta be feeling left out."

"No, I'm fine, really--"

"But you broke up with what's-her-face," Gar added.

"It's Babs, and that doesn't matter, I--"

"Maybe that one over there, she looks--" They never found out what Vic thought she looked like, because with one glance from Karen, he shut his mouth.

"Look, you guys, I don't want this right now. I _really_ don't want this."

Gar frowned. "High school guy. No relationship. Nope, not adding up. Unless you want to go join the Glee Club over there." He pointed behind him to a bunch of sniggering, snorting nerds.

"Uh...no. What I mean is, why do you think I dated Babs? She was just a friend! I didn't want all those stupid, golddigging, fake, Barbie-dolled--"

"We get the point, Dick," Rachel interrupted.

"Yeah," said Dick, slumping back down into his seat. He hadn't realized how passionate he'd gotten. "Sorry."

The bell for class rang, and that was the end of that.

* * *

_She jumped from roof to roof, heading quickly and silently to her destination. Apparently, there was a rich family over on the east side that she hadn't visited yet._

_She'd begun to control her powers, and even discover new ones. Her 'star-bolts,' as she liked to call them, after her new name, came to life exactly when she wanted them, and she could even throw them, only after they left her hands, they were out of control. She learned that, at her rare moments of happiness, she could actually hover. During her alone time, she practiced and practiced, getting better and better. There wasn't a safe in Jump City that was safe now._

_No pun intended._

_Still, she was coping with the fact that she was a mutant. A freak. If anyone found out, who knew what would happen to her. Not what would happen to Star-fire, but _her_. The real her. It was a fact too horrible to consider._

_Finally ending up about thirty feet above and twenty feet across from her destination, she jumped down into the alley as nimbly as a cat. The family lived in the apartment right across the street from the alley she was in right now. All she had to do was--_

_"Don't move," came a rasping, surly voice. She spun around quickly. A drunken, filthy man came out of the shadows right behind her, grabbed her, and pointed a revolver at her temple. _

_

* * *

_Sorry for the POV switching, again. I just really want to get on with the story, so I put all the filler stuff in this chapter. 


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything below...

* * *

_A little after-hours exploration never hurt anyone, and you've wanted to do this your whole life, just you and no one else. You know Jump like the back of your hand, now, there's no way you'd get lost. And who knows what the city is like after everyone's asleep? _Dick reasoned with himself, a shiver of excitement running down his spine. He'd never done anything like this. Unthinkable, for his image. But there was no one here to hold him back, now. 

Dick held the costume up in front of him. Spandex. He'd freeze his butt off. But still, it would be the farthest thing from an encumbrance, and for what he was thinking of doing, he'd need a _lot_ of room to manuever. He unfolded the costume and a small, black piece of cloth fell out of the folds. A mask.

_It's just as well_, Dick thought as he climbed out his window, silently enough not to wake any of the Logans. _As much as I don't care what everyone thinks of me, it's probably better not to have the entire nation laughing at the fact that Dick Grayson is running around in tights._

_

* * *

_

_"What do you want?" she asked, her teeth gritted. The cold, cold metal pressed into her temple, feeding the fear growing in her stomach. The man laughed, tightening his hold around her waist. Neither noticed the dark shadow jump down from the roof of one of the buildings they were between._

_"What do you think I--" He stopped suddenly, and the hold on her waist loosened. She glanced upwards in confusion only to see that a different man had taken the drunk's place, steadying her in her time of shock._

_"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice deep and husky. She blinked, making sure she wasn't hallucinating. The guy was wearing _tights_. Not only that, but he actually looked _good_ in tights. His long, jet black hair hung down below his ears, and a mask, similar to hers, covered his eyes and most of his nose. Blue and black spandex adorned his body, with a dark bird in the center of his chest. She gulped. This one was built, far more so than the other guy. She wasn't entirely sure she could take him, but then, she wasn't entirely sure she would have to. He didn't look like he would hurt her...yet._

_Only when he gave a lopsided smile did she realize she'd been staring for far too long. Someone groaned at his side, and she realized it was the man who'd tried to mug her before. She tried to say something, but he beat her to it. "Can you talk? Did he hurt you?"_

_She was startled, which obviously meant her defenses down. She needed to stay alert. Quickly, she pushed the second guy away, her arms held up defensively, ready to unleash her star bolts at a moment's notice. "What do you want?" she hissed, as threateningly as she could make her voice sound. The man held up his arms, looking surprised. _

_"Just to help, I swear. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."_

_She started to back away, a scowl adorning her face. "I don't need help." As fast as her legs could carry her, she disappeared out of sight. Never mind this apartment. Too many lunatics around there.

* * *

_"You okay, man? You look like death warmed over," Vic commented at lunch the next day. Karen felt his forehead worriedly, but Dick waved them away.

"I'm fine, just didn't get a lot of sleep last night," he assured them.

Gar frowned. "But I didn't hear anything. You were sleeping like a baby."

"You couldn't hear a nuclear explosion while you were sleeping, little man. Believe me," Vic added to Dick, "I've tried waking him up before. I don't know how Rita does it every morning." Dick grinned, searching desperately for another topic. How was he supposed to explain to his friends that he'd been traveling around the city half the night, met up with some girl about to get shot, and then nearly had his head bitten off by her? All that, only to not get to sleep until four o'clock in the morning. He'd gotten lost, of all things. And he'd been _so sure _he knew the city by now...

Fortunately, Karen provided a means of escape. "Listen, there's a new girl in our classes. Transfer. Don't know from where. You guys wouldn't mind if she hung around us for a little bit, you know, until she gets the hang of this place?" Rachel just shrugged, unwilling as she was to meet new people, but the rest were up for it.

"Aw, how nice and kind and compassionate and caring and sensitive of you, Karen," Vic crooned, kissing his girlfriend as Karen blushed with embarrassment. "It's our anniversary today, so I've got to be extra-good or Karen'll get me for it tomorrow."

They all laughed, but Gar shot a furtive look at Dick, and he knew something was up. "What?"

"Nothing! Nothing really, I mean, not that this new girl is anyone that _you_ would really want to get to know, because, come on, what could possibly--" Karen slapped her hand over his mouth, an action he saw more and more of the longer he knew them.

"Thanks for that, Gar," she muttered.

"You're_ not_ trying to set me up, are you?" Dick challenged.

"Of course not, Dick. To tell the truth, I honestly don't think the girl even knows what that means. She's more than a little confused, that's why I wanted to help her out." Dare he hope? If it was that girl back from the taxi...but why enroll now, when that incident was two months ago?

"What's her name?" he asked slowly.

"Kory Anders."

* * *

_Tristan Roth was not in a happy mood. He rarely was. But this...how dare that little man take away the billions of dollars worth of xenothium Tristan had guarded and collected throughout the last few decades? Gone! All in exchange for a stupid little folder that possibly held his life in it's contents. All for his safety. He cursed himself for not being more careful. But then, he'd never been patient. And he'd so needed to install respect in the name of Roth Industries, especially after that scandal all those years ago with the first experiment..._

_One success, that was all he needed. His 'secret ingredient' to amazing outcomes on the human body. But the mutant had to fly out before it was over, of course. If she ever found out who she was, not only him, but his entire company had met it's downfall. Lawsuits. He hated when they were against him._

_And this guy, Chang, could not be trusted. He'd probably turn against him as soon as the lawsuits started coming, to protect his own midget hide. He needed to be removed...permanently. _

_Tristan picked up the phone and dialed a well-known number. He knew many people willing to take on the job, but few who could do it as quickly, effectively, and silently as Slade Wilson could._

_

* * *

_"Hey, Kory. You remember me, right? I'm Karen. This is my boyfriend, Vic."

"Hey, little lady, how's it going?" he greeted, holding out his hand to shake.

Kory thought carefully. "Very well. I believe I am _very_ little from your line of vision, am I not?" she giggled. He laughed along with her.

"She's alright."

Karen rolled her eyes. "Anyways, this is Gar and Rachel. What they see in each other, I have no idea, but they're dating."

Rachel's mouth twitched, but she decided it was too much effort to fake a smile and remained stonily silent. Gar, however, was practically bouncing up and down. "Hi--hic!--I'm Gar--hic!--and this is--hic!--Rachel, she's--hic!--usually this quiet--hic!--so don't be offended or--hic!--anything, she doesn't mean--hic!--it. So do you--hic!--have sugar on you--hic!--or maybe some water--hic!--either one, I--hic!--need both." He smiled apologetically, still hiccupping. Rachel sighed and shushed him.

"Sorry. He's usually like that."

"Anyways," continued Karen, not wanting to scare the poor girl, "Kory, meet Dick." Kory gasped, recognizing him immediately. He smiled at her, and she felt her face heat for no particular reason.

"We've met. Taken any taxis lately, Kory?" Her blush grew worse, and Dick laughed. "I'm kidding, don't worry about it. I didn't know you lived here."

"Oh...y-yes," she stuttered. Why had it suddenly become so hard to move her tongue? "I have t-taken your advice. About keeping m-money with me."

Dick nodded. "You don't want to go spreading that around, though. You might get robbed or something." Kory blinked, hoping no one had seen the dark flash of remembrance she'd had about the night before in her eyes. Oh, the irony. _She _might get robbed?

"Of course not."

"You guys know each other? From where?" Vic asked interestedly.

Dick shrugged, noticing her nervous habit of biting her lip and correctly interpreting that she didn't want to talk about it. "It's a long story. Hey, Kory, is your house far from here? If you needed a ride..." He grinned.

"No thank you," she answered quietly. "I enjoy walking. But it has been a pleasure to meet all of you. I thank you for assisting me today, Karen." They all parted ways, Kory stealing one last secretive glance at Dick. Why he made her feel so strange was still a mystery.

* * *

_After the strangeness of last night, she was as jumpy as a hare. The smallest twitch was given her full attention, the tiniest sound had a star bolt aimed at it. She wanted to meet no more people tonight. She had a job that needed to get done._

_Finding herself on the same rooftop, she made sure no one was in the dark alley beneath her, and prepared to jump._

_"We really should stop meeting like this." She yelped quietly, turning around to meet none other than her 'saviour' from the night before. He was leaning up against the door that led to the top most floor of the building from the rooftop, smirking. She snarled, ready to fight at a moment's notice, but he didn't do much else than wait for her response._

_"Who are you? What do you want from me?" _

_"My name is D...Nightwing. And as for your second question, nothing. Just wanted to know what you're doing, and why you hate me so much. I didn't do anything to you that I would consider bad." Cocky, insolent jerk! Her eyes narrowed._

_"What I do is no business of yours. If you don't want to get hurt, you'll leave me alone!"_

_Nightwing chuckled, completely unfazed. "Yeah? There's no need to dramatize this. You won't even confide in the guy who saved your life?"_

_"I could have escaped by myself," she huffed. He still looked skeptical, but she smiled a little. It was high time to scare this guy away. Concentrating as hard as she could, she brought her star bolts to life._

_"Whoa!" he stumbled back a couple of steps, properly intimidated. Her smirk grew wider. "Wha-what are you?" It faded instantly._

_"Didn't I tell you? Now get away from me. I promise I won't hold back next time." She turned to jump again, but felt a hand on her sholder, which she shrugged away immediately as she turned yet again. Before she started to snap, though, she caught herself. He didn't look as cocky now. Definitely more serious._

_"You're that theif, aren't you? The one that's all over the news. Starfire." He gave a snort of contempt. "I don't put up with criminals."_

_The remark stung, but she didn't let it show. "Tough luck. I don't have time to put up with _you_." She pushed him away, but was apparently stronger than she seemed. He flew all the way to the other side of the roof, as startled as she. _Super strength, too. Are there no end to these surprises?

_Finally, she made it into the house with no interruptions.

* * *

_Okay, another chapter with loads of POV switchings...I honestly can't tell you when they'll stop, because I have no idea where I'm going with this story. Sorry...


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

_

* * *

_

_Nightwing was horrified. More than horrfied, he didn't have a word for it. He'd met a murderer. He'd met a murderer and hadn't done a thing about it. He may well have been one himself._

_He jumped across the roofs of the city buildings, desperate to find that girl, desperate to hand her over. How could she? She was a girl! A girl that didn't look any older than him! She murdered a man!_

_"You," he hissed vehemently, spotting her as a dark shadow against a building. She was wearing the same things as the last two nights he'd seen her: a dark hoodie and equally dark jeans, with a mask like his covering her eyes. Probably a little girl that wanted to do some exploring to get away from her overprotective parents, and ended up thieving for the thrill. He would have believed that, if it had not been for the fact that she could shoot lasers out of her hands, or something like them. _

_She turned, and he prepared to defend himself. She might try and kill him, too. "Murderer," he spat._

_Starfire tensed. "What did you call me?" she asked, her voice low and threatening._

_"You heard me. You're a murderer. That poor guy, Chang. You..." Nightwing couldn't even bring himself to say it. "You sick, twisted--" She grabbed him by his collar, and his air supply was immediately cut off._

_"I would never take a life. Ever. I don't know what you're talking about, but you'd better become ten times as articulate in the next three minutes, or you're going to wake up in a hospital tomorrow morning." She let go roughly._

_Nightwing coughed and massaged his neck, glaring at her through his mask. Apparently, hurting people was not quite the same as taking a life, if she could deny the latter and threaten the former in the same sentence. "You...or whoever...burned...burned everything..." The news reporter's accounts of Chang's corpse were too gruesome for him to repeat. "They said everyone could hear him screaming, and his whole house burned for hours, and it wouldn't go out. I wouldn't be surprised if it was those things"--he sent a mistrustful glance at her hands--"that did it."_

_She actually looked hurt. Not mock-regretful, but ashamed that he'd tried to pinpoint this murder on her. "I can't help what happened to me. I don't deserve to be labeled a freak because of this. And I don't need you accusing me of crimes I did not commit." She turned away and climbed down into the alley._

_"Yeah? Well, sorry for accusing a criminal of a crime!" Nightwing yelled after her, not ready to let go just yet. He would bring this girl to the police, if it took him until four o'clock in the morning. He jumped down and blocked her path._

_Big mistake._

_She lit up that green light in her hand, and her eyes turned a neon green as well. "Move."_

_"No. I'm not going to let you go into that house and steal anything. You're coming with me, and we're going straight to the authorities." He grabbed her unlit arm, but she shoved him away with unbelievable strength. He let go immediately, not really feeling like getting the beating he'd gotten last night. _

_"Get out of my way, and don't ever touch me again," she snarled, lighting up her other arm._

_"I already said, no." He sounded a lot braver than he felt. She looked ready to obliterate him. "Look, take it easy. It's not hard to live without commiting an offense, millions of people manage that every day. Just stop walking around town at night, that's all I'm asking."_

_She smirked. "Easy for you to say. Richie Rich, I bet you are. I don't know why I'm bothering to talk to you." She jumped up and flew--actually flew--over his head. He watched in a stunned silence as she made her escape. Before she was completely out of earshot, though, she turned back. For the second time that night, Nightwing was given the impression that there was a very different girl under the cold, distrustful exterior. "This is my living. I have no choice. If you can't understand that, it's not my problem." And she was gone._

_

* * *

_"Good morning, Dick," Kory said, smiling uncertainly as she sat beside him in his homeroom.

Dick grinned back. "Hey, Kory. I didn't know you'd be in here. How's it going?"

She frowned confusedly. "How is what going? Do we have a project I am unaware of? Or is it common to use pronouns when no noun was previously mentioned?" Her questions were spoken slowly and uncertainly, as if she was unsure that she was making a mistake.

"Nah, it just means 'how are you.' So, what country are you from?"

Kory froze, unsure of how to answer. "It is not really a country, more of a small, tropical island," she lied, describing the dream home she'd been thinking about for the past few weeks. "It is called Tamaran."

"Ah. Sounds like the Bahamas. Why'd you leave?" Kory turned scarlet, and searched desperately for an answer, but Dick interrupted. "I'm sorry. If it's personal, you don't have to tell me. I shouldn't have been interrogating you like that." Kory forced a laugh.

"Not at all. But...it_ is_ rather personal." Dick left it at that.

The millionaire had never quite seen anyone like Kory before. The tropical island thing made sense, and maybe people from whatever culture she was from had beautiful, all-green eyes like that. When he's first met her, though, by the taxi, or even yesterday, when Karen introduced her, he hadn't seen a speck of pink anywhere. That was what made him like her the most, ridiculous as it was. All the purple she wore, he could get used to, as long as it wasn't pink.

It must have been uncomfortable, he observed, to try and fit her tall, willowy frame into that little desk and chair, but she obviously had noticed. Kory was busy staring at the desk like she'd never seen one before. She almost didn't hear her name called.

"Kory Anders?" the teacher asked again.

"Yes, Mrs. Hive?" she answered a little late, blushing embarrassedly.

"Come up and introduce yourself to the class." Kory did as she was told, walking up to the front of the room and facing her classmates. A couple of blonde girls sitting together started whispering to each other behind they're hands, glaring at her. But what was worse, a few of the boys were giving her looks she didn't even understand, but didn't like at all. Her eyes met Dick's, under his sunglasses, and he gave her a lopsided smile. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hello. My name is Kory Anders, and I am a foreign student from an island near...France. It is a pleasure to meet you." She made most of that up, but Dick, at least, bought it. She nodded at Mrs. Hive, and rushed back to her seat.

"Thank you. I'm sure everyone will make you feel welcome," Mrs. Hive said indifferently as she wrote on the whiteboard. "Now, I want everyone to turn to page one-sixty..."

Dick nudged her. "Nervous?"

Kory bit her lip and nodded. "Very much."

"Miss Anders! Mr. Grayson! Would you like to share your conversation with the class?" The boys who Kory had been afraid of earlier turned to glare at Dick, and the girls that had been talking about her seemed even more angry. Kory thought she probably should share the conversation, but Mrs. Hive had already turned around. Rhetorical questions were still rather confusing.

A note landed on her desk.

_Hey. Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of, except maybe a detention. If you have a question, don't hesitate to ask it. Find me right before lunch and we'll go get Gar and Vic and Karen and sit together, okay?_

_-Dick_

_By the way, don't pass this back, just put it in a folder or something. We might get in trouble again._

Kory nodded gratefully to him and slipped it into one of her books.

* * *

_"Chang is dead, Mr. Roth," Slade Wilson said in his quiet, haunting voice. Tristan nodded._

_"Good. Though, that was a bit extravagant, wasn't it, burning the place down? Couldn't you have made it look like suicide?" he asked irritably._

_Slade smiled slowly. "It looked like the furnace blew. And even if no one checked that, there is a certain arsonist on the loose, a new one I haven't met or employed. She goes by the name of Starfire or something of that sort. Very skilled."_

_"So you framed her?"_

_"Yes."_

_"Good. I don't need anymore bad publicity." Slade almost always had that placid smile on his face, and it irked Tristan to no end. That's why Slade was rarely in Tristan's office for more than five minutes. It was already starting to drive him crazy. Yet, the CEO was one of the few people who knew Slade and did not fear him. Tristan could have him dead in a second, and Slade knew that. Roth Industries was quite possibly the most powerful organization in the underground, and it still managed to look legal. "Your money." Slade took the packet from him and left immediately, knowing Tristan's temper sparked easily and not wanting to make a mistake and get himself murdered. It was actually quite common, with people who visited Tristan Roth's office._

_

* * *

_"So, Kory, how was your first day?" Karen asked the new girl at lunch. Kory was examining her slop with fascination, but looked up quickly to answer Karen's question.

"Wonderful. I know one person in almost all of my classes, and it is very relieving." Although, the class where she'd followed Gar's instructions hadn't gone so well...

Dick grinned. "And she almost got her first detention in Jump in homeroom today." Kory blushed and giggled, but was getting used to it, now. She almost always turned red when Dick was around. But he'd explained that detentions, though bad, were somewhat of a joke among students, because teachers would threaten to give them out until their faces were blue but never actually did it. "She would've beaten me to it."

"Truly? Are you new here as well?" Kory questioned.

He shrugged. "Yeah. I used to live in Gotham." Kory had never heard of such a place, but nodded.

"Why did you leave?" Dick paused, and Kory added quickly, "If it is 'personal,' you need not reveal it."

"How is getting hounded by girls, papparazzi, and Bruce personal, Dick?" Rachel commented dryly.

Poor Kory was far too confused by this. "Girls are not dogs, yes? Although to call someone a female dog is apparently an insult. Is that what Rachel meant? And why on Earth would a pizza topping wish to 'hound' Dick?" Kory asked. Gar and Vic burst into laughter, but Karen shut them up.

"Gar, quiet it or I'll have Rachel deal with you. And _you_," Karen's eyes glinted dangerously at her boyfriend. "I still need to get you back for giving me lip on our _anniversary_. Don't make me add this to the list." Both were quiet immediately. Dick launched into an explanation on whaat Rachel really meant, which lasted half the lunch period. Dick seemed to have taken this job upon himself, though, to explain things she didn't understand.

"...And Bruce is my guardian. That's all." He washed down his pizza with milk and stood up. "I've gotta go make up a test for Mrs. Rouge. See you guys later. Bye, Kory."

"Good-bye," Kory answered shyly.

Karen and Rachel exchanged identical looks. _It's been one day and these two are already this pathetic._

* * *

"Hey, Kory. Ride home with me?" Dick asked after school let out. This time, Kory accepted. 

Gar's house was not too far from the school, so there really was no reason to take Dick's motorbike. It was the first thing he'd purchased in Jump, and he loved riding it, and even that mile or so was enjoyable. Everyone had decided to meet at Vic's house after school, though, so it was a good thing he brought it. Vic did not live quite as close. Kory, though, had walked, and Dick was definitely not going to let her walk all the way to Vic's.

"Dick, I believe I have a debt to you," Kory said.

"You mean from the taxi? Don't worry about it, Kory."

"But--"

"We're friends now. That's what friends do for each other." She was silenced.

When she saw the bike, Kory seemed more than a little scared. "I do not believe we will fit," she pointed out.

"Don't worry, we will. Trust me, it's completely safe. You take the helmet, I'll be fine." Kory nodded apprehensively, and Dick swung his foot over the side. "Now get on behind me." Kory was not quite as graceful getting on, but managed it in the end.

She gasped as the bike wobbled, and Dick put his feet down for support. "It's okay. Just grab on to me, it'll be alright," Dick assured her. She held on to his shoulders and he chuckled, ignoring the butterflies having a party in his stomach. He grabbed her hands and fastened them around his waist. The party just grew a whole lot wilder. "Hold on tight." Kory squeezed as hard as she could, and Dick heard a crack that could have been one of his ribs. This girl was _strong_. "Not that tight!" he gasped, and Kory loosened her hold.

He could feel Kori's head nestling itself in his back. "I apologize," she squeaked. "I was just afraid I would fall..."

He grinned as he massaged his chest, though she couldn't see him. "It's okay, most people are afraid of that at first. I've just never met anyone as strong as you before." _Well, one person, but..._His hand brushed against hers on accident, and felt his face flush. "Ready?"

"I believe so." They were off.

* * *

_"You again," she muttered as Nightwing approached her. "What do you want?"_

_"To say sorry. I shouldn't have accused you of something you hadn't done," he said. _

_She still didn't buy it. "Really? And what made you change your mind?"_

_Nightwing shrugged, sitting on the rooftop and dangling his legs off the building. "I don't know. I've had a day to think about it, I guess. I was just wondering about you."_

_"Wanted to get information to turn over to the police?" she sneered._

_"No. Not everyone's out to get you, you know. I was wondering what you meant when you said you didn't have a choice but to steal." He looked up at her hopefully, and noticed for the first time that her costume had changed. Only the mask stayed the same. Her hair--though he'd never seen it, covered up by the hood as it had been, he assumed it was there, she was a girl-- was stuffed underneath a cap. She'd traded in the baggy street clothes for a suit of sleek, black, skin-tight spandex that made his mouth water, and then suddenly feel very dry. _

_"AHHH! HELP ME, SOMEONE, PLEASE!" The cry rang out through the night, interrupting his perverted observations. Nightwing got up and ran towards the sound, unaware of Starfire following him. _

_"Shut up, lady, one word and I'll shoot--" Muffled cursing was heard, and Nightwing sped up until he discovered the source of the noise: the same mugger who'd attacked Starfire not so long ago. Jumping down from the rooftop, he was barely noticed by the guy until he delivered a swift punch to his temple. The man stumbled, letting go of the woman who had been screaming. "You again, I'll shoot this time, I really will--" He rose the gun, only to have Starfire shoot it out of his hand with her laser-things. "What the hell?"_

_She landed crouched beside Nightwing, straightening at once to knock the man out, and stared down at her work. "Nice aim," Nightwing joked. "Timing was pretty good, too."_

_The woman stepped forward shakily. She was old, maybe fifty, and stared at Starfire like she was an angel. She'd probably blinked when the star bolt was fired. "Th-thank you. I d-dont' know what I w-would've done if you hadn't c-come." Starfire took a step backwards. "Wait, don't leave, please! Who are you?"_

_"No one. You saw nothing," Starfire hissed, finding a ladder and making her way back to the rooftop. _

_Nightwing shrugged, grinning. "Sorry. She's a little moody today." He followed Starfire up the ladder, reaching her at the top before she could run. "Wait! Why did you...help?"_

_She glared at him. "Why wouldn't I?"_

_"I thought you hated me."_

_"Doesn't mean I'd leave you to die," she shot back. _

_Nightwing smiled. "Well, thanks." Starfire jerked her arm away and prepared to jump. "Hold on! You didn't answer my question from earlier."_

_"I don't have to."_

_"Yeah, but...please?" Still glaring, Starfire crossed her arms and waited. "Why don't you have a choice but to steal?"_

_Starfire didn't answer him at first. She sat down on the rooftop, a good sign, to him. He joined her, patiently waiting. "I...There are certain circumstances..." She was trying to be vague, and it wasn't working. He worked his hand into hers._

_"You can trust me, you know. I owe you my life. The guy probably would've shot me, back there." Truthfully, the guy probably couldn't aim, and Nightwing could easily have dodged it, but Starfire looked as if she believed him. Sort of._

_"Tell me, then, Nightwing, how many jobs are there for a seventeen-year-old girl that pays enough for her to support herself? She has no parents, no money of her own, she starts from nothing. Not only that, she knows what it's like to have nothing at all, and she doesn't want to go back to it. Anything is a better option than starving in the streets." Starfire hugged her knees to her chest as she stared blankly ahead. _

_"Maybe I don't want to do this. Maybe I _do_ want to live like those millions of people who don't have to steal to survive. But I can't. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a mutant. If anyone found out..." She shook her head._

_"And when you're out at night, things change you. A lot. I'm not as threatening as I mean to be. I'm not this tough, or mean, but at night, you have to be, or _you_ become the victim. I'm a normal girl who just can't...I just don't know any other way to get along. I'm scared all the time, that someone like you will come and try to take me away, and then the whole world will find out about what I can do. I'll be put on display like an animal. I don't even think it's worth it sometimes, there's no...nothing to live for right now. Night is a world of danger." She punched at the cement of the roof, leaving a small hole, before she felt Nightwing's arm encircle her shoulders._

_"It's not, not always. And I..." He took a deep breath, unable to believe he was about to say this. "...I won't turn you in. I promise. When you put it like this..."_

_She nodded solemnly. "That's mostly why I told you." She stood up. "I need to go..."_

_"I understand," Nightwing answered sadly. He smiled a little. "Nice costume."_

_She smiled back, just a little, but it was the first time he'd seen her do so. "Thanks for the idea."_

_He laughed. "I should've known. It's copyrighted, you know."_

_"I'm a criminal, remember? It's what I do, steal things," she mumbled, sober again. Nightwing stood up, desperate to make her smile again, but she glanced at him. "Thank you, though." She jumped down into the alley and disappeared._

_

* * *

_No comments today... 


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans

* * *

_She didn't know why she was waiting for him, on the building they'd met on yesterday. She shouldn't have trusted him at all. It was a big, bad no-no to trust anyone she met at night. But he seemed so sincere and truly friendly..._

_He came. He was shivering violently, though, and his breath, like hers, was coming up in puffs. "It's flipping freezing out here!" he growled. "How do you stand it? I would've worn a sweater or something, but then I can't jump all that well." He grinned._

_Starfire shrugged. "I don't get cold very easily. Another one of my..." She couldn't find a word for it, other than 'freakish abilities.' Nightwing seemed to understand, though._

_"Hey. I don't want you thinking of yourself like that. You're not a freak, Starfire, you're just...different. Unique, how about that?" Starfire raised an eyebrow. "Starfire...a freak is someone who can..." His face hardened. "Who can murder a family and stand there laughing. That's not you. That's not you at all." He embraced her gently, and before she could grasp the fact that she was being _hugged_, he tightened his grip. "Holy cow, Star, you're so warm..." _

_She blushed unintentionally, never having been this close to a guy her age, especially one like Nightwing. "Star?"_

_He didn't look at her, he'd have to move his face from where it rested against her warm cheek. "Sorry. Nickname. Do you mind it?" _

_"Not at all," Starfire whispered. She was really enjoying this. But it couldn't last forever. He had to let go sometime, and he'd be cold again. "Nightwing, let go." He released her suddenly, looking as embarrassed as she. He started to apologize, but she cut him off. "Wait. Trust me, okay?" Nightwing frowned, but nodded. Starfire rested one hand on his chest, inwardly smiling smugly as she made out a faint pink tinge on his cheeks in the dark. She lit a star bolt, but only slightly. Warmth spread throughout Nightwing's body. He sighed in pleasure._

_"How did you...?"_

_"I don't know," Starfire admitted. "But it worked, right?"_

_Nightwing's mask stretched as his eyes opened wide, and Starfire very nearly giggled at the sight. "You...you..." It didn't seem so funny anymore. Maybe he was really mad at her. She shrank back as an evil smile spread across his face. "You're gonna pay for that." He came forward as she moved back fearfully, nearly at the edge. The he reached out and..._

_...tickled her. She shrieked with surprised, and then squirmed, trying to escape his grasp. "W-wait! St-stop! Nightwing!" He laughed, ceasing to let her breathe. Starfire plopped down on the ground behind her._

_Only, there was no ground behind her._

_She fell off the building, the ground rushing up to meet her at an alarming rate. "Starfire!" Nightwing yelled, sure to awake everyone in a fifty-foot vincity, thinking she was stealing something again. Just before she hit the ground, though, she forced herself to swallow her fear and fly. Surprisingly enough, it worked._

_She flew to the top of the building again, where Nightwing was trying to calm his rapidly beatng heart. "I...I forgot. Flight. That was too close," he muttered. He was noticeably pale, even under the moonlight. He stumbled back a couple of steps, and Starfire knew she'd messed it up. Star bolts were freaky enough, but flying was too much. She'd pushed him away. Already. Her head hung low, and she almost wished she hadn't flown just now._

_His next question, though, was totally unexpected. "Why'd you jump?"_

_"I didn't mean to. I didn't know I would fall," she answered quietly. "I'm sorry. I should go." Go back to stealing, that was all she was good for. She visually measured the distance between this building and the next, to see how far she could jump and then fly across. Her body felt heavy with misery. She wouldn't be able to. She'd just take the fire escape down._

_Starfire felt a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" _

_She whipped around. "Why? Why do you act like you care one second and then stare at me like some...some ANIMAL the next? If you don't like me, then leave! I don't even know why you're here! Is it to catch me? Then do it! Just stop all that talk about me not being a mutant when you don't mean a word!" she yelled. Surely, now, everyone in a fifty-foot vincity was deaf._

_Nightwing held up his hands in surrender. "Is that what you thought? Star, that's not it, really! I thought you would fall!" She didn't believe him. She needed to get out. He was a liar. She shouldn't have trusted him. "Star, wait, come here." He sat down and patted the spot near him. Starfire didn't move. "Please."_

_"No. Just get away from me," she mumbled, hugging herself. She really did feel cold, now._

_Nightwing pulled her arm, and she collapsed in shock. "You're going to listen, because I haven't personally told anyone this before, and I want to tell you. It's important to me, and I'd be glad if you heard it. And I don't want you thinking you can jump off whatever roof you want while I'm around." Starfire looked away. He wouldn't be around her much longer._

_"When I was a kid, my family and I were part of a circus act. We were great, and everyone loved us. Then, one day, my parents were doing their trapeze act without the safety net. It was part of the act." He squeezed his eyes shut, determind to tell the rest of the story. "There's more to it, but I can't...maybe later. They fell, Star. Someone cut the ropes, and they fell. They died, and I just watched." _

_Starfire was aghast. "I'm sorry...I didn't know...I didn't..."_

_"Of course you didn't. But please...just don't scare me like that," he begged. She nodded, her heart pounding wildly. She was geting awfully moody. Now she felt horrible for not trusting him five minutes ago, when he obviously trusted her enough to tell her this and cared about her enough to make sure she would never fall like that. That, or he never wanted to see anyon fall to their deaths ever again. That was understandable. _

_Nightwing chuckled bitterly. "Wish my parent's could've flown." Starfire grabbed his hand in hers._

_"Would you like to fly?" She didn't even realize she'd asked that question, it just popped out of her mouth. _

_"What?"_

_"I could take you flying," said Starfire, wishing she hadn't offered in the first place. But Nightwing didn't seem too fazed._

_"We won't fall?"_

_"No," she said confidantly. Nightwing nodded, and she grabbed his other hand, pulling him up. "Are you ready?" Nightwing nodded, and Starfire jumped, taking off. Only minutes ago, she thought she wouldn't be able to hop an inch in the air, but now she was soaring. And Nightwing was soaring with her._

_He whooped with joy, and a smile worked it's way on to Starfire's face. Flying was amazing. She'd never done it this long before. "Star, this is awesome!" Nighwing called through the wind. She went faster and higher, until they were above the lowest clouds. Then she stopped. "Wow," Nightwing breathed. That just about summed it up._

_The view from up here was incredible. The could see the whole city. Starfire wished she could stay there with Nighwing forever, but she was tiring. They alighted on the same rooftop a minute later, still in awe. "Did you..."_

_"Think that was the best thing that ever happened to me? Yes!" he finished for her, staring up at the sky. "Why do you think there's nothing good that comes out of night, Star? Anything amazing always happens at night."_

_"I guess..." she shrugged, still in a little doubt. "Nightwing, I..."_

_"Have to go?" he said. Starfire nodded, and he laughed sadly. "I know you too well. I...okay. I'll leave." She hated disappointing him. But what other choice did she have? It was getting late, too, and she needed sleep tonight. But she still felt her heart sink as he walked away, until he called back, "Star! Meet me here tonight!" _

_"Of course," she answered. He gave one last, sad smile and jumped down on to the fire escape._

_

* * *

_"Hey, Kory. How are you?" Dick asked, catching up to her. Kory smiled back at him, shrugging.

"I am very well, and yourself?"

"Great."

They walked on in a comfortable silence, until Kory asked, "Why are you walking to school today, Dick? It is rather cold."

"I'm fine, I've got this great coat, it'll work. I just wanted to talk. You're okay, though, right? Coming from a tropical island and all, you've gotta be freezing. I don't think it's supposed to be this cold in California."

Kory waved it off. "I will be fine. It does not seem so bad to me." Dick was still unsure, and took off his coat to give to her. His arm brushed hers, and Kory shivered.

"You _are_ cold," Dick observed. Kory asn't about to tell him that she really hadn't shivered because it was chilly. "Here." He wrapped his coat around her shoulders, made Kory wear it, and then laughed. His shoulders were a lot broader than hers, so the entire coat sagged down, and the arms covered her fingers. She glanced up at him from under the hood, her face seeming so small, it was adoring. Dick helped her untangle herself from it. "Maybe not..."

"It is fine," Kory said cheerfully. She had an extra skip in her step, Dick noticed, but didn't question it. Suddenly, Kory gasped. "Dick, come, please! It is very important, I cannot believe I had forgotten!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him so hard he was practically flying behind her. Kory veered off to the side of their path, and Dick prayed they wouldn't be late for school.

The girl stopped beneath a large, bare tree and jumped up, beginning to climb it. "Kory, hold on, you'll get hurt!" Dick called up worriedly. She paid him no heed.

"You must climb up here, Dick! It is very important!" she called down. Reluctantly, he scrambled up after her. The faster he got up there, the sooner they would be down on the ground. "Look..." Kory's voice held a trace of sadness as she pointed towards a branch. There lay a nest with a single bird's egg inside. "The mother and father are gone!"

Dick saw that there was a bright purple blanket surrounding the egg, and chuckled. "You've been taking care of it?" Kory nodded.

"But why are the parents not coming back? Their baby will..." she drew a deep, shuddering breath. Dick moved past her, grabbing the branch and easing himself out on to it. His hands shuffled to the end, so that the branch was in danger of breaking off. Quickly, he grabbed the egg and blanket and jumped down the last three feet or so, straightening as he landed.

"Come down here!" Kory climbed down the tree, staring in wonder at the little egg in Dick's hands. "Kory, the parents aren't going to come back for this egg. Chances are, it's already dead. This egg was supposed to hatch ages ago. Birds all migrate south for the winter, so they don't freeze. By the time they come back in the spring, the baby inside will have died." Kory's eyes filled with tears, and Dick wished he hadn't said anything.

"No! The baby is still alive, and I will take care of it. I must keep it warm, yes?" Dick handed her the egg without question, though he knew it was no use. He didn't want to see her crushed.

* * *

_"Mr. Roth? There is someone who wishes to meet you. He won't give his name." Tristan Roth smiled, expecting this._

_"Let him up." A minute later, a burly and unclean man walked into Tristan's office._

_"Mr. Roth, sir. All of the xenothium Chang took has been sucessfully transferred to your storage. Also, there was a little bit more, of his personal store, and we took it, too." _

_"Good. Very well, Pratt, you may take your payment and leave. Expect an extra reward for the excess xenothium and your silence later." Pratt backed out of the room, respectfully (or maybe out of fear) never turning his back to Tristan. His secretary from below buzzed in a second time._

_"Mr. Roth? Mr. Blood wishes to know when the business dinner you were speaking of is to come around." _

_"Maybe tomorrow. Not tonight, my daughter is inviting guests. I don't want those rascals sunning in and ruining everything." Business dinner. Ha. Sometimes, Tristan didn't realize exactly how in-the-dark he kept his employees._

_

* * *

_Rachel had invited them all to her house for dinner that evening, and Kory brought alone her newfound companion, her egg. "Want to ride there on my R-cycle, Kory?" Dick asked coyly. Kory blushed and nodded, giggling a little at his affectionate nickname for his motorbike. Vic, the only one who'd heard the exchange, shook his head pathetically.

With the egg tucked carefully in Kory's jacket pocket, they set off. The ride was all to short, but the two enjoyed it just the same. Rachel's mansion rivaled Wayne Manor, both in size and design. Dick was quite used to walking into masterpieces of architecture, but it took Kory a good thirty seconds to overcome her awe and stumble forward a few steps. Even then, she needed Dick's help.

When Rachel, Gar, Karen, and Vic arrived in Vic's car not too long after, Rachel buzzed them in. Most of them walked confidantly up to the front door, as they had been here before. Kory, however, was very uneasy. All of a sudden, she didn't like the look of the place.

The door opened to reveal a middle-aged butler standing on the other side. "Good afternoon, Miss Rachel."

"Hello, Robert. You remember that I had invited friends to stay after school today?"

"Of course, Miss Rachel. Come in." They were led inside to a vast front hall with a giant, sparkling chandelier twinkling above their heads. The wooden floor had only a single rug in the middle, and paintings covered all of the cream colored walls. Stately statues had been planted in all of the corners. Kory shrunk against Dick's body, afraid in such a cavernous space. Dick grinned and easily wrapped his arm around her.

"We'll go up to my room, first. That way we can--"

"I apologize for interupting, Miss Rachel, but Mr. Roth requires you all to keep the noise level down, he needs to concentrate on his work," Robert cut in. Kory's world began to swim in front of her eyes.

"Dick?" she asked quietly. "Who is Mr. Roth?"

Dick frowned. "Rachel's dad. You know, owner of Roth Industries. That's why they have such a nice place." She hadn't known Rachel's last name. No one had ever thought to tell her. But, Roth Industries...Kory felt like she was about to throw up.

"I must leave," she mumbled, holding her stomach.

"Kory? Kory, what's wrong?" Dick inquired worriedly. Kory shook her head and barreled out the front door.

"Kory!" Vic was calling her now, too. All of her friends had followed her out on to the lawn. Dick caught up with her first and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from escaping.

"Kory, tell me what's wrong. Are you sick?" Kory pushed him away and kept going. She needed to get out of there as fast as possible. She ran all the way to the park two blocks away, and into the trees. Leaning against a trunk, the redhead regained her breath, unable to believe that one of her best friends was the daughter of the man who'd imprisoned her.

* * *

_Starfire was there, as promised. She was tired, she was lost, and she was confused, but she was there. Now she only had to wait for Nightwing to come._

_He struggled on to the rooftop, his breaths coming out in curious white puffs. "I swear, any more nights like this and we'll have snow." He shook his head. "In California. Imagine." Starfire said nothing, having no idea what he was talking about. "Whatever. I'm glad you came, though. I had something to show you." Nightwing grinned._

_"What is it?"_

_Nightwing sat down, wincing at the cold of the rooftop, but slowly becoming accustomed to it. He patted the space next to him, a gesture Starfire had come to know as 'sit down by me,' since he used it so much. She did as he bid, waiting for his next instruction. He gave none, instead, lying down and staring straight up. Starfire frowned, wondering what he thought he was doing. Then she looked up, and noticed._

_Previously, she'd relied on the moon for nothing except the light it gave at night. And even that, she barely needed, since her star bolts came into use. But now she knew why Nightwing had picked tonight. It was a full moon. And it was absolutely beautiful._

_Starfire tried to lay down next to him, but her lack of attention made landed her head on to Nighwing's chest. She didn't move. His arm wrapped around her tiny waist and they laid there for--what seemed like--forever._

_"I was wrong," Starfire whispered finally._

_"No. You just didn't know."_

_She shifted so she could see his face. From what she could tell, his eyes were locked on her, though it was hard to see because of the mask. "Thank you."_

_She didn't know if it was him who'd started to lean in first, or her. But in that electrifying moment when their lips met, she didn't care. Nightwing rolled her off of him and pinned her to the roof, sliding his torso on top of hers and kissing her harder. They broke apart for air a few seconds later._

_"I...didn't see that coming," Starfire murmured breathlessly._

_Nightwing smiled slowly. "Me neither." And he kissed her again.

* * *

_Yay they kissed! Did I take it too fast? I didn't want this to become another Yeah Another High School Story with 27 chapters, so...


	8. Chapter 7

Sorry I haven't updated! I'm insanely busy this week...and next week...

Disclaimer: I don't own TT

* * *

_Starfire bit her lip, opened her mouth, and closed it again. She'd been repeating this ritual for a while, now. Nightwing was oblivious, thoughtfully staring into space and occasionally shifting the arm he'd wrapped around her waist. Starfire could tell something was bothering him, but knew he'd probably tell her if he wanted her to know. And besides, she had a different question for him._

_"Nightwing?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_Bite lip. Open mouth. Close mouth. "Um..."_

_"What's wrong?"_

_Bite lip. Open mouth. Close mouth. "I..."_

_"Star, if there's something you need to say, you don't have to hide it if you don't want to."_

_Again with her ritual. But then, it burst out. "Who are you?"_

_"Huh?" he asked, obviously not expecting that. Starfire receded into an embarrassed silence. "What do mean, Star? I'm Nightwing..." He suddenly realized what she was asking, but she spoke it out loud anyway._

_"No...who are you? When you're _not_ Nightwing?"_

_He didn't answer for a moment, and her heart sank. "I'm sorry, Star. I can't tell you that."_

_"Yeah, I figured," she muttered quietly, bringing her knees to her chest. His grip tightened. _

_"It's not that I don't trust you, and you know that. It's just...if someone found out, then I'm out of here. I'd have to go back where I came from, and that..." He shuddered. "That's out of the question. I wouldn't be able to see you again." He smiled sadly at her._

_"I know, I understand, I guess...if someone found out who I really was, I would be in jail..." She sighed quietly, but Nightwing said nothing. An unspoken agreement was settled between them. They wouldn't try to find out, they'd be content with each ther right now. After all, there was still so much they didn't know about each other, so many things they _could_ talk about. It didn't matter, at least not yet._

_Starfire rested her head on his shoulder, and he chuckled. "If it's any help, I was wondering the same thing. But I figured if you wanted me to know, you wouldn't wear a black shower cap every time you see me.__"_

_Starfire shoved him playfully, which turned out to be a lot more than a light push because of the strength she didn't know she had. After she was done apologizing for the bruise he was sure to have in the morning, she argued, "It is not a shower cap!"

* * *

_Kory received a note almost as soon as the bell for first period rang.

_Hey, Kory. You okay? After yesterday and everything. What happened?_

_-Dick_

Kory didn't look at him as she wrote her response.

_I apologize for worrying you. I was merely ill, though I feel much better today. I would much rather not have up the thrown all over yourself._

_-Kory_

Dick grinned at her as he received her answer, and scribbled a couple last words on there.

_You mean 'thrown up'? Yeah, I wouldn't have liked that much either. Glad you're feeling better._

Kory nodded and smiled at him, looking away in case he saw through her lie.

As soon as passing period came around, Dick wasted no time in talking to her. "Are you sure you're all right? You could always come over to Gar's today, and Mrs. Dayton could check and see, although you'd probably die from the stink first, I almost did--"

Kory giggled softly. "That is truly not necessary, Dick, but thank you." She kissed him on the cheek and left before her heavy blush began to show.

* * *

_"Mr. Roth," came the smooth, dangerous voice that was Slade's. "I have news."_

_"Come in," Tristan called gruffly._

_Slade did so, his expression unreadable, as always. He closed the door behind him and locked it firmly. "May I use your laptop?" _

_Tristan agreed reluctantly, and Slade started the computer, taking out a silver disc from his back pocket and slipping it in the CD drive. "What is that?" Tristan asked, but Slade shook his head. For once, Tristan listened and remained silent, intrigued. _

_Playing on the screen was footage from a rather grainy tape. "Security camera," Slade explained. This particular camera was overlooking a large rectangular prism, what Tristan assumed to be a safe._

_A dark anthropoid form walked in, and stopped in front of the safe. Then, the strangest thing began to happen. A greenish light emitted from what looked like the figure's hands, and the metal of the safe melted away. The figure reached in and grabbed whatever was inside, ad quickly made an exit. The tape stopped playing. _

_Slade turned to Tristan, waiting for the CEO's outlook on the event. "What was that?" Tristan spluttered._

_"You have just witnessed the security tape playing at the home of a certain client of mine. This safe contained valuables unknown to myself, but that is not the point. This was a heist made by the infamous thief Starfire."_

_Starfire...why did that name ring a bell? "Sounds familiar."_

_"It should. She was the one I framed for Chang's murder." _

_Tristan frowned. "What is the green?"_

_"We thought it was a glitch in the camera, but it turns out that it actually happened. That is a radioactive substance, whatever she blasted from her hands, and obviously of very extreme temperatures, to melt metal. This woman is not a woman at all. Or rather, she used to be." Slade's voice grew lower. "She is a mutant."_

_And it hit Tristan like a train to his brain. "My experiment!" Slade nodded. Tristan did some quick thinking, and finally came up with a solution. "I want her out of the way. Gone. Permanently."

* * *

_"Dick! What is this wonderful substance?" Kory asked him as they rode from school on Dick's motorcycle. He slowed down. A light snow was falling, and Kory was mesmerized by the swirling patterns of white. Dick frowned, but then remembered. If she'd come from a tropical island, then of course she wouldn't know what snow was.

"It's called snow. Not supposed to happen in California, but I guess, since we're north of Los Angeles, we might have it every once in a blue moon...you've never heard of snow before?"

"Snow..." Kory murmured. Dick had completely stopped, now, and was watching her with amusement as she stared up at the sky. "I have heard of such a thing. In books. It is glorious."

Dick stuck his tongue out to catch a snowflake. Kory giggled at his childish manner, but then tried it herself. "Aw, you just missed one. Listen, if more than five inches falls, why don't you come over to Gar's tomorrow? There's a lot we can do with snow, things you couldn't even imagine." Kory was hooked.

"Of course! What kind of 'things'?"

Dick grinned. "You'll just have to find out."

* * *

_"Sometimes...sometimes I wonder who I am..." Starfire admitted to Nightwing. It was a safe topic, at least, in the way she was approaching it._

_"You're Star. And whatever your alias is, right? Or did you forget your name?" Nightwing teased._

_"No. I just...I was barely alive for so many years, Nightwing, and I don't know what happened to me during most of my life."_

_Nightwing's smile faded. "Do you want to tell me what happened?"_

_Staarfire sighed, sure she'd relieved the memory quite enough in her head, thank you very much, but Nightwing deserved to know. "When I was five, my parents died. I don't really remember how. That's all blurry and confused. But a man came to my house and forced me into a car. They took me to a lab, under a big Roth Industries factory, and..." Starfire shrugged. "I can't remember anything until I landed somewhere around here. Apparently, the factory blew up, and the only reason I survived was because I was like...this."_

_"Roth Industries?" Nightwing asked, furrowing his brow._

_Starfire shuddered. "Yes. I'm always afraid they'll come back for me again..." Nightwing pulled her into his embrace, kissing her cheek softly._

_"Don't be."_

_"But still...I want to know what happened during all that time that I was comatose. Obviously something did, because I am the way I am...and I want to know what happened to my parents. But I don't know where to find the answers."_

_"I'll help you, Star, I promise. You know I'm here for you, whenever."_

_She smiled and pecked him on the lips. "Thank you."_

_And a huge explosion nearly knocked them off the building._

_

* * *

_I think this is going to be the last update for a while from me...at least until I get my schedule back in order...it's been a looooooong week. 


	9. Chapter 8

This chapter is exactly three thousand words! Haha...

Okay, I totally had no idea what the names of the new characters in this chapter were, so I kinda made some up. Hope you guys don't mind! It's still pretty obvious who they are.

Thank you so much to **cartoonfire, Black Raven 13, ChristianAndGatorGal, BerryDrops, Starsoffire, SuPeR HyPeR chick 101, RavenSis, tennisgal456, Alien Emerald, shattered-hearts-602, **and** lykomigosh23 **for reviewing the last chapter! YOU guys rock :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything mentioned below.

* * *

_Nightwing grabbed Starfire, clutching her close to shelter her as the top of the building blew apart completely. They were flying through the air, and screams of people who'd lived in that building were all that were heard in the still night air. Then, a bright, roaring fire sprang up out of nowhere, and the screams grew louder. In his shock, Nightwing hadn't noticed until now that he hadn't fallen to his death. Starfire was hovering, holding him as tightly as he was holding her._

_"Star, get back there! Those people, we have to help them!"_

_Starfire nodded at once, the thought of just leaving never crossing her mind. She flew them towards the burning building, watching in horror as people jumped off the highest floor to avoid the crackling flames. She dived, grabbing one man by the wrist and swooping down to let Nightwing catch another's, and she dived again to have them all land safely. Before Nightwing could protest, she flew up, catching more of the jumping people. This time, she only stopped three feet above the sidewalk, dropping them the rest of the way so she could find more people._

_She flew into the burning building, subconsciously acknowledging the fact that Nightwing was there, having climbed up fifteen flights of stairs to reach the top, where the explosion had occurred. Starfire gathered three or four people in her arms and flew out of the window she came in through, again, dropping them on the sidewalk and flying in to find more._

_The fire was raging uncontrollably, now, and sirens were heard in the distance. Fire truck upon fire truck and ambulance upon ambulance arrived on the scene, immediately springing into action. Starfire continued to look for the still trapped people, beginning to choke on the oxygen-less air. Had she been fully human, she probably would have fainted from smoke inhalation long before. This was the one time she was glad she was different. Maybe Nightwing was right about--_

_Nightwing!_

_She shot up, rocketing through the flames in her search for Nightwing. There were no more screams, no more cries. Everyone in the building was either rescued...or unable to say anything._

_"Nightwing!" she called through coughs. "Nightwing!"_

_No answer._

_Then, she caught a flash of blue amongst the orange and red. There was Nightwing, cornered by flames, protecting three young children with his body. His mask met hers, and a smile of relief crossed his features. It disappeared in a fit of coughs. Starfire truly panicked for the first time in this ordeal. Before, she'd known what to do, but Nightwing...Nightwing was hurt..._

_"The kids, Star!" he wheezed, doubling over to cough again. Starfire rushed to them, darting between the flames, though her meta-human body could take the heat, and grabbing a girl around the waist. With the same hand, she clasped a little boy's arm. Nightwing held another boy by the wrist, and he latched himself on to her. Flying as fast as she could, Starfire dodged the leaping tendrils of fire with amazing agility, and found herself out in the night._

_Nightwing began to cough again, and his grip on her slipped. She landed quickly, detaching the scared little children from her fingers and desperately trying to keep Nightwing upright. It was no use; he'd already passed out. A paramedic pulled him away from her, setting him on a stretcher and starting to haul him away. The other ambulances had already gone, carrying victims with burns and damaged lungs, just like Nightwing. Nightwing's was the last one. Firefighters, however, still remained, trying to put out the insuperable fire._

_Someone seized Starfire from behind and pressed a knife to her throat. "Don't move," her attacker said in a quiet, dangerous kind of voice. Obviously not expecting this right after the fire, Starfire obeyed his command, too exhausted to fight him. _

_Nightwing came around, though, and she was the first thing he saw as they tried to load him into the ambulance. "NO!" he cried, paying dearly for his outburst by hacking up a storm. Still, he had gotten everyone's attention, and they all turned to follow his line of vision. They saw the girl, the one who'd been rescuing everyone in ways they couldn't even imagine, about to have her throat slit._

_The firefighters came rushing to her aid, but her attacker tightened his hold on the knife, tilting her head upwards as he nicked her skin with the blade. Starfire's breathing turned ragged, and the firefighters stopped, unsure if any move they made would get her killed._

_"That's right. You are going to come with me, slowly, now. Don't try anything, or I will not hesitate to kill you," the man whispered threateningly in her ear. Nightwing gave another yell for her, as soon as his bout had ended, but it started up again. He could almost feel the air around his mouth shift as the man smirked. "Or better yet, I can just kill your dear boyfriend..."_

_"No," she croaked. _

_"Good. It doesn't look like it would matter, though, would it? Sweet girl, it looks like he's going to die anyway, if he can't breathe properly. Too busy caring about you to stay alive, is he?"_

_Nightwing...she needed to help him. What if he DID die? "Let go of me!" she mumbled, afraid to move too much lest that knife slipped. She only felt the knife move a little, but a drop of blood tickled her throat as it trickled down on to her costume._

_"No, I don't think I will. Now, if you don't want to watch him die, you will walk."_

_Starfire's eyes began to glow a bright green. "You cannot make me!" In that second, she forgot she had to pretend to play a tough criminal. She forgot how worn out she was after the battle with the fire. She forgot everything, except that this man was taking her away from a loved one, and it was most certainly not going to happen again. _

_With a battle cry, not only her hands, but her entire body aquired the same neon green aura as her eyes. The man was startled, but not startled enough to let go. Starfire unleashed all of her anger in the form of a powerful shock wave, like one immense star bolt, blowing the man away from her instantly. It was not quite big enough to harm anyone more than ten feet away from her, but it was enough to drain her completely. _

_She fell the the ground, desperately trying to stand up. She couldn't pass out here. She needed to find that man, something needed to be done about him. Not only that, but they would take her to the hospital, they would find out who she was. Her thoughts were blurred, and coming too fast for her to focus. But she couldn't leave Nightwing..._

_Starfire stumbled over to where he lay, coughing, in the ambulance. "Nightwing," she whispered._

_"Go," he hacked out. She obeyed him before he had to say anything else._

_As soon as she landed inside her house, she passed out on the floor._

_

* * *

_"Thank X'hal for Saturday," Kory told Karen at the mall the next evening. "I have never slept so well. Is this what most people do on the nights of Friday?"

"Yeah," Karen replied happily. "It's pretty much custom to sleep in until one o'clock in the afternoon, or, if you're a guy, one o'clock the _next_ afternoon." She picked out a pair of jeans and held them up to her waist. "These are cute. What do you think, Kory?"

Karen had called Kory at around three, and Kory had just gotten up. Karen was about to invite Rachel to come with them, but Kory hurriedly persuaded her otherwise, saying Rachel wouldn't like it anyway. Kory had spent most of the past two days avoiding Rachel, afraid the girl would figure out who she was and report the discovery to her father. She knew she should have been able to trust Rachel, after all, she was one member of the group who'd taken her under their wing on her first day, but Rachel was shady and mysterious. Kory was finding it difficult to trust her at all, now. She knew nothing about Rachel, she realized. Nothing at all.

"Kory?"

"Oh yes, they look wonderful. Perhaps this shirt would go well with them?" she asked, holding up a random T-shirt.

Karen frowned. "Nah, too dark. Rachel might like it, though, why don't you buy it for her as a Christmas present?"

Kory frowned, the word 'Christmas' ringing dusty bells in her mind. It had something to do with the snow she had seen with Dick not too long ago. "Karen, what is Christmas?"

Karen cocked her head, obviously having forgotten that Kory had such a limited knowledge of everything that went on around their community. "It's a religious holiday, but we get two weeks off of school for it. You get all of your friends and family presents. 'tis the season for giving, or something like that."

Kory thought long and hard about this. "When is it?"

"December twenty-fifth. On second thought, though, Rachel might like something along the lines of a book..."

Eventually, the two decided that Christmas shopping was far too much of a hassle without preparation. They wandered around the mall for a few more hours, and Kory knew she wouldn't have been able to keep up with Karen's practiced shopping expertise if she hadn't had her super strength. Even so, she was still worn out from the night before and was the first to admit to being tired.

They sat down in front of a TV and flipped to the news. Kory gasped at the first thing she saw: the fire of the building she had been on the night before.

"...Police say they could not find the arsonist, but evidence proves that someone had purposely tried to start the fire," the reporter declared. The picture switched to one of people jumping out of the sky, but...there was Starfire. Flying. "But that's not all. Eyewitnesses admit to seeing a _flying_ woman, and survivors agree that this 'bird-lady' had grabbed them, jumped out of the fifteenth story, and landed safely on the ground. Accounts of her are confused and disoriented, and some are gladly turning to the belief that witnesses were delusional after the ordeal. Any other news of her is to be turned into the police department immediately. Forty-three victims suffered burns, and the Jump City Hospital reported one death. In other news..."

"Flying woman, huh? They _must_ be delusional," Karen commented. Kory was stunned into silence. The whole world knew. And now she was on the news. Roth Industries could find her, they knew she was in Jump City...she felt sick.

_Jump City Hospital reported one death..._her breathing came faster and faster. Nightwing! Nightwing was sent there! Was he okay? Was he the one who...

Karen looked over at Kory, and saw the girl shaking uncontrollably. "Kory? Kory? Hey, you okay? Listen, it's me, Karen! Come on, let's get on home, you need rest."

"Nightwing," Kory murmured quietly, her eyes filling with tears. She should have been there! Why did she have to be so tired? Why had that man attacked her afterwards? He must have started the fire, she should have seen that! She should have turned him in! She should have followed Nightwing's ambulance! She shouldn't have gone home! She shouldn't have cared about protecting her identity! So what if she was jailed, what if Nightwing was _dead_?

"What was that?" Karen asked her.

"I--I said, what a horrible thing," Kory lied, hugging herself. She would never forgive herself if Nightwing wasn't okay.

* * *

_"Rest assured, my partner will not fail," said the thin, balding man sitting across from Tristan in the CEO's office. "He is capable of both brute force and cunning."_

_The corner of Tristan's mouth curled up in a snarl. "He had better not, or I'll kill him AND you, just like I did to that idiot Slade Wilson...Failure is not an option while dealing with this mutant, and mistakes will not be tolerated." To the other man's credit, he didn't even blink._

_"There will be no need for that. Contact me when you make your decision." The man slid a card across the desk. Tristan read,_

_Jaques de Gaulle, Sc.D._

_Monsieur Mallah Marseille_

_And there was nothing more. But he needed nothing, Tristan could track them down using their names only, frauds or otherwise. "Good. One question."_

_"What is that?"_

_"If he's got the smarts and muscle, what are you in this patnership?"_

_Jaques gave a small half-smile. "Who do you think taught him what he needed to know? Mr dear sir, I am the brain."

* * *

_Kory accepted no calls at all for the rest of the day. Partly because she needed to save money for the phone bills, but also because she was in total mental distress over Nightwing's condition. She'd walked down to the hospital and asked for the name of the person who had died, but was told that it was confidential. She begged to at least know what the person was wearing, but recieved a funny look and figured out security was about to be called. She didn't even own a TV, so if something about him came up over the news, she would have no idea.

This found her back at the mall, sitting and staring at the TV screen she and Karen had rested in front of earlier. So far, there was nothing but repeated news. She was about ready to throw up, seeing the picture of Starfire yet again.

"Kory? What are you doing here?" a voice asked her. Kory turned and forced a smile.

"Hello, Dick."

He sat beside her on the bench, frowning. "You okay? What's going on? I was waiting for you at Gar's."

"I apologize, it is...quite a long story," said Kory. "I am merely tired. Resting." Turning back to the TV, she finally heard what she was looking for.

"...Earlier today, an escape was made from the Jump City Hospital. Believed to be an accomplice of the flying woman who saved so many from the fire on 135th Street, the man was hospitalized for smoke inhalation. A nurse found his bed empty at eleven o'clock this morning. Back to you, Bob..."

Her heart soared. She knew sitting here for two hours would pay off! She felt like hugging Dick, but his face looked abnormally blank. "Dick? Are you undamaged?"

He snapped out of his trance (or death glare to the TV screen, whichever it was) and smiled at her. "Oh, yeah. Just thinking." Kory probably hadn't noticed before, busy being distraught, but his face looked ashen, and he'd taken to clearing his throat quite a few times. Or was it covering a cough? "Don't worry about it, Kory. I've got a cold, 'tis the season, right?"

"For giving? Has someone presented you with this cold? I was unaware that Christmas was so early this year, is it not on December twenty-fifth?" Kory asked, confused. She was probably confusing Dick, too, so she stopped talking.

* * *

_"Nightwing!" Starfire barreled into him, enveloping him in a back-breaking hug. Nightwing gasped for air, and Starfire let go quickly, watching in horror as he doubled over with coughs again. "Oh no...no, no, no, Nightwing, are you undamaged?" She slapped her hand over her mouth at her slip of language, but it was too late._

_Nightwing's coughs began to subside, and he gazed at her strangely. "Yeah, I'm fine. Did you get home okay last night? I'm sorry I got carted off, I--"_

_"It's okay, you weren't..." she struggled out. Her practiced ease with slang all went down the drain at the first sign of an emotional strain. "You were hurt."_

_"What about that guy? The one who tried to..." Nightwing shuddered, entwining his gloved hand with hers. Starfire shook her head, feeling shaky again after seeing Nightwing look so weak._

_"It was a small cut, m-my costume took most of the knife. It wasn't too bad." Nightwing pulled her into a much gentler hug._

_"I was so worried... things like that hopefully don't happen around here too often. But that was insane..."_

_Before she knew it, Starfire found herself holding back tears. She didn't even bother trying to fix her language now. "The n-news said that s-someone had d-died...I thought it w-w-was you..." She buried her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking with her attempts to stifle her sobs. _

_"Shh...it's okay. I'm not going anywhere..." Nightwing kissed the tears off of her cheeks, but they kept right on coming. Her mask began to peel off, and she tried in vain to hold it up. Nightwing turned her around. "Fix it, Star, I won't look."_

_Starfire wiped her tears, pausing for a moment as the cool night air danced around her eyes. She considered, for a moment, turning around and peeling Nightwing's mask off as well. Sighing, she sniffled one last time, and put the mask back on.

* * *

_Hope this was more of a fast-paced chapter...


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans

* * *

_"How are you?" Starfire asked quietly._

_"Better," answered Nightwing, sounding cheerful. Starfire shrank back, sighing quietly. She hadn't realized it before, but she cared a lot more about Nightwing than she gave away. Maybe he'd noticed that, too. "Hey, Star? Are you okay?"_

_She nodded, sitting down on the roof of the new building they'd chosen as their tryst. "Nightwing, I found something."_

_"On what?"_

_"Roth Industries."_

_Nightwing's air turned grim, like it did every time she mentioned the huge company. "What did you find?"_

_"A few years ago, there was another experiment they conducted. A little girl named Koma Anderson. She was an orphan that one of the employees had adopted. They were trying to find a medicine, from xenothium, that would create some sort of meta-human. I'm not sure if they were trying to prolong human life, or if they were trying to better human characteristics. But..." Starfire paused here. It was the part that scared her the most._

_Nightwing wrapped an arm around her. "But what?"_

_"But the government found out. At least, they found out that they had the girl, not about the experiments. There's no file on those. They rescued the girl, but...she died three days later from the large amount of radiation exposure." Starfire swallowed, starting to shiver uncontrollably._

_Her boyfriend was thunderstruck. There were so many things he wanted to say, but he couldn't get them into word form. "Hey. You're fine, Star. You may be different, but you're alive and well. You'd know if you were going to...you'll be fine, Star," he tried to assure her. It was no use._

_Starfire stood up. "I need to go..."_

_Nightwing stood, too, unable to hide the disappointment of the shortness of the visit, even through his shock. "Stay safe, Star."_

_She hugged him tightly, but not so tight as to hut him, and let go. Nightwing was sure her mask was sagging with the weight of her tears. "Good night."_

_

* * *

_"Rachel! Rachel, I need to talk to you!" Dick called. The dark girl turned and waited for him to catch up to her in the hallways, which took quite a while during passing period. "It's kind of a personal question..."

"Tell Gar I'm not answering if he made you come and ask about my--"

"No, no, it's not about Gar. Just, promise me you won't tell anyone." Rachel frowned at him, about to make a remark about him and Kory, but decided against it. He was dead serious.

"What is it?"

"Promise?"

"Dick, stop acting like a little kid, of course I promise."

Dick hesitated. "It's about...your dad."

Rachel's eyes narrowed. She hated talking about him. "What'd he do?"

"He...do you know anything about a girl named Koma Anderson?"

Rachel frowned. "No."

"She was an orphan, adopted by one of your dad's employees. He experimented on her, with xenothium, and the government found out. They tried to save her, but the girl died." Dick scrutinized her face, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but it remained completely blank, as usual.

"I knew about all the lawsuits," Rachel answered slowly, thinking about every word. "I was seven, then. It was a tough time. We almost lost our house. My parents almost divorced. My dad went from bad to worse." She paused. "I never knew why, though, but I never wanted to ask him. I didn't know it was so bad." Dick waited. "I'd rather not question him about it, if you don't mind. That's what you wanted me to do, right?"

"Yeah. But don't worry about it, I'd rather not have you yelled at." The bell rang, and the two hurried towards their classes.

"Wait a second, Dick. Why so interested?"

He paused, unsure of exactly how much he could trust her with. "It's...for a friend." And he knew that Rachel knew that he was talking about the escaped experiment from her father's lab.

"Dick, my dad's a ruthless person...keep her safe."

Dick nodded and walked into his class.

* * *

_"Why is this taking so long? I want that experiment under lock and key as soon as possible!" Tristan roared into the phone. On the other end, Jaques stayed perfectly calm._

_"By the end of this week, she will be yours, Mr. Roth. I have not forgotten. My partner and I are researching and planning. The action stage will come later."_

_"How much researching and planning do you need? It's a teenage girl!"_

_Jaques was quiet for a minute. "Do not underestimate the power of your creation. She has powers you and I cannot possibly dream of. I suggest you watch the recording of yesterday's news I am sending you." Tristan hung up the phone, growling about 'smart-mouthing the boss,' and his e-mail beeped._

_Opening the video, he was amazed at the so-called 'Bird-lady' that flew everyone to safety. He didn't even know his experiment could fly. How much mutation had that xenothium caused?_

_And after this, she had the ability to fight off Slade. There had been a report about a tiny explosion, which fire-fighters and paramedics had seen first hand, but were sure it was because of the fire. What if it was the girl?_

_"Take all the time you need, Jaques, but make sure that girl is off my hands forever," he muttered._

_

* * *

_

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

Dick, Kory, Gar, Vic, Karen, and Rachel had gathered at Gar's house, some of them more downtrodden than others. Even Kory had a noticeable worry about her, but she had brightened when, in Math, the first snowflakes had begun to fall. She'd tugged on Dick's sleeve, asking if that tutorial on snow was still available.

Gar, unfortunately, had started chucking snowballs at people before Dick was done explaining the concept of snow angels, and the two had no choice but to join in. Rachel refused to play, but Dick, Karen, and Kory were on one team, since Kory had little knowledge of snowball fighting. Vic and Gar made up the other, hooting and howling about what they got to do to the losing team after they won.

Soon, though, it was evident that Kory was an asset to the team, rather than a burden.

She could hurl snowballs twice as far as anyone else, and managed to drag quite a lot of snow at once, so their fort was built faster than Gar and Vic's. _Never_ had pounding the two pranksters been so easy and fun.

"This is very enjoyable!" Kory told Dick as they ducked behind the fort.

"Glad you like it--duck!" Another snowball went zooming over their heads. "Here, toss this one at Gar, his head's sticking out right there..." He handed Kory a snowball and it hit Gar square in the forehead. Dick and Kory fell backwards, laughing, while Gar desperately shook the snow out of his face.

"Dodge this!" Vic yelled, holding up a huge chunk of snow. Karen's eyes widened and she took up most of the sheltered space that the fort provided. Dick and Kory had no choice but to lay down in the snow behind her and hope it wouldn't hit them. They heard a grunt as Vic threw the behemoth, and Dick pulled Kory under him at the last second. The gigantic snowball exploded all overhim, showering him in white flakes. He sat up, spitting them out of his mouth, while Kory held her sides, afraid she'd split open for laughter.

Vic crowed with victory, slapping Gar's hand in a high five. Dick was still trying to get the snow off, and the cold was beginning to seep into his skin. As soon as Kory was able to, she helped him, brushing the snowflakes off of his jacket, his shoulders, his hair, his face...

Kory pulled away, blushing furiously. "I believe we must take the revenge now, yes?" she asked softly.

"Huh? I mean, uh, yeah...here..." He handed her another snowball, and her blush was not helped by the contact. He grinned at her and nodded. Kory stood up and shot the snowball straight into Vic's laughing mouth.

* * *

_"I can't believe this...I'm a filthy, cheating..." Nightwing cursed at himself, debating whether or not he should go and meet Starfire. Even if he ignored his friends, it was obvious to him that he had feelings for Kory, and not the brother/sister type. But he was dating Starfire. He was her support. She might have been dying, and he was over there two-timing her. Well, not really, but it was close enough. And it wasn't like he didn't care for Starfire anymore either. He just had problems._

_"Hey, Star," Nightwing greeted nervously. He'd finally decided to come._

_Starfire was much quieter than usual. Maybe she had found something else, but Nightwing had the strangest feeling that she _knew_ about him and Kory. He gulped and stayed a good two feet away from her._

_"Hello," she said tiredly._

_"Did you get to sleep, Star? After last night? You look exhausted."_

_She shrugged. "I got a job. A real one. It's difficult."_

_Nightwing wanted to reach over and hug her close, but it would feel wrong. She didn't deserve to have someone who couldn't keep his eyes off other girls. A playboy. That's what he was assumed to be in Gotham. Maybe that was all he would ever be. But it didn't matter at that moment. "I'm proud of you."_

_"Don't be. It's just an internship, and I still need to be...this. A thief," she replied bitterly. Nightwing said nothing. "But not tonight. I just wanted to see you. I need to go home." _

_He nodded and tried not to sigh. He was just too confused. "Good night, Star."_

_A minute after she left, Nightwing heard a yell. It was a man's, and it was coming from the direction that Starfire had gone. He rushed over, hoping she hadn't gotten hurt, but when he arrived on the scene, Starfire was nowhere to be found. _

_Instead, a man was holding up his arms in surrender against another man weilding a gun. "Gimme your money!" the armed man said. _

_"I don't have it with me!"_

_Nightwing jumped down on to the armed one, knocking him out with a swift punch to the forehead. He then grabbed the gun and glanced up at the other man. "You okay?"_

_"Yeah." Nightwing nodded at him, and the man scampered away after thanking him._

_Unsure of what to do with the gun, Nightwing resolved to take it to the police station first thing in the morning. Then he noticed a moving, black shadow above him. Starfire. She'd taken her sweet time in getting there. But her movements were slow and jerky--she was too tired. He was about to call to her, but she passed right by him and into another house. _

_Nightwing frowned. It was a tiny house, one he didn't remember seeing before. But this was where Starfire lived, he inferred, the thought saddening him. He lived in Wayne Manor, and Starfire could probably barely fit a bed in there. _

_Unable to contain his curiosity, he climbed up on to the roof of a nearby store and stared at the little house. Only half of Starfire's body came into view, but, when her long red hair fell past her waist after she took her cap off, it was more than enough to Nightwing. His queries about Kory no longer mattered as those familiar bright green eyes looked out the window and up to the skies._

_Starfire and Kory were one and the same._

_

* * *

_Was that too rushed? It seemed to me like it was, but I can't pinpoint why...

Hope you all liked it! Happy President's day...that is, if you live in the U.S...


	11. Chapter 10

Pretty short chapter...

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans

* * *

_Nightwing didn't come. She had waited for hours, far past midnight, until it was obvious he wouldn't be showing up. Had she done something wrong? She searched her thoughts, trying to pinpoint something, anything. There had been that little episode with Dick, but Nightwing meant more to her than that, it didn't matter...did it? Starfire hugged herself, the cold suddenly seeping into her clothes. Everything was so confusing..._

_And who knew jobs were so stressing and tiring? If she had, she wouldn't have taken one. But it was the only option left to her. _

_She needed to know if she would live or die. She needed to know what was wrong with her. She needed to know _why_ she had something wrong with her. There was only one place where those answers might be._

_Roth Industries had far too complex of a security system for her to get through._

_So, she took a job there.

* * *

_Dick felt terrible for skipping out on her. But what could he do? He was scared out of his mind that he'd let something slip, and she'd get mad. It was now the second day of school he had knowing this, and so far he'd done a pretty good job of avoiding her. He shifted his books and binders under his arm to open his locker.

"Dick?"

"AHHHH!" Papers flew everywhere. Dick backed up against his locker, staring fearfully at Kory. "I swear, I don't know anything, I didn't mean to, it was an accident!" Kory cocked her head to the side inquisitively, the equivalent of 'why the heck are you acting so pathetic?'

"What was an accident?"

Regaining his composure (somewhat) Dick stood up and ran his hand through his hair, trying to think up a suitable lie. "Um...I, uh, didn't sleep all that well last night, and I'm a little jumpy 'cause I had a lot of coffee this morning to keep me up," he fibbed. Kory sighed.

"It seems that we have the same problems..." She hadn't smiled this entire time, Dick noticed, which was strange. Normally, Kory was a very bubbly person. _I bet I know why you're so tired all the time. You don't sleep half the night. _He gulped and grinned at her.

"Yeah...uh, you okay? You seem kind of down."

She shook her head. "I have begun to work as an intern. It is very difficult, and I do not think my mentor likes me very much. And a friend of mine was being the 'MIA' yesterday..." Se looked even more downtrodden than before, and with a pang of guilt, Dick guessed who that 'friend' was on the first try.

"I'm sorry, Kor. He'll probably meet you today, he probably messed up the time or something," Dick offered lamely.

"How did you know he was a 'he'?" Kory questioned, suddenly looking suspicious. Dick swore to himself. He was sure he'd handled that so smoothly...

"Lucky guess? Ah, so, where do you work?"

"Roth Industries," Kory answered absently.

"What?!" Dick asked, horrified. "You can't work there!"

"I cannot?"

The bell rang for class, and Kory shuffled off, still glancing back and staring at him as if he was the strangest thing on Earth. He groaned and shut his locker. _She is SO much better at this than I am..._

* * *

"Dad?" Rachel asked upon arriving home. Tristan was in his office. He frowned upon being interupted. "Dad? Are you home? I have something to ask you." 

"Aren't you old enough to figure your homework out by yourself?" Tristan growled back at her.

Rachel sighed. She didn't know what to do. Asking her father about Koma Anderson would obviously spark suspicion. That would probably put the girl Dick had been talking about in a greater danger than she was in already. And it might harm Dick, too... "Nevermind."

"Make yourself useful and tell someone to bring me a snack. And while you're at it, call up Maynard and tell him to move that Kory girl up. She's not doing anyone a favor as his intern."

"What Kory girl?"

"None of your business! I told you to call!"

* * *

"Dick! I have been 'promoted'! I am being paid for my job now. Is it not wonderful?" Kory asked Dick gleefully, squeezing all the air out of his lungs when she hugged him. "They told me I was exceptionally intelligent, that I would do much better in a higher position!" 

Dick gulped. He knew _exactly_ why Kory/Star was so happy about this. Sure, it was a step closer to being able to live without stealing, but it was also a step closer to the top, Mr. Roth, and the information about the experiment she'd been involved in. "That's great, Kor. Awesome," he choked out, awkwardly hugging her back.

She separated, feeling his forehead. "Are you ill? You do not sound very well..."

"I'm fine. Uh, how about we go tell Rachel and the others the good news?" They walked around campus until they met up with Vic, Gar, and Karen. Kory continued to list symptoms that he might have.

"Perhaps the large amount of coffee you drank this morning's effect as worn off?" she suggested.

"What coffee?" Gar asked. "My mom doesn't even buy--OW!" Dick stepped on his foot, feigning concern when Gar started cursing in pain.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you mean, am I okay, you just stepped on my--OW!" There went his other foot. Gar fell backwards as he tried grabbing both sets of toes at the same time. "Ugh..."

"Perhaps Gar is ill as well," Kory observed.

"Nah. Just intelligently challenged. Hey, have y'all seen Rachel lately?" Vic asked.

"Didn't she go home early? She doesn't stay to help with dance committee..." Karen said.

"Or football practice..."

"Or the Animal Savers Society!" Gar added. Vic cracked up.

"Nice acronym, man."

"What's an acronym?"

* * *

_"Star?" Nightwing asked quietly. She jumped and whirled around to face him, startled. _

_"Nightwing!" She hugged him, taking him by surprise. "Where...?"_

_"I had to go somewhere," he lied. Starfire knew he was hiding something from her, but she didn't say anything. "How are you?"_

_"Good," she answered stiffly, turning back to stare at the street below. _

Great. Way to go, Grayson, you messed it up again_, Nightwing thought to himself furiously. "Star, you wanna tell me about your job? Where is it again?"_

_"Roth Industries," Starfire replied hesitantly. _

_"Why?"_

_She frowned at him. "Why what?"_

_"Why would you take a job that'll probably endanger your life? Have you forgotten what Mr. Roth did to you? To that little girl?" he asked, waving his arms agitatedly in the air._

_"How could I? That's why I want to go there, to find anything I can. He can't do anything worse than kill me, and I need to know...that might happen to me anyway, so there's nothing for me to lose."_

_Nightwing was beyond furious now. "Nothing for you to lose? He will HURT you, K...Star!" Nightwing winced a little at his slip-up. "He might even TORTURE you. And besides that, what if there's something for ME to lose? What if I lose my girlfriend over this, because she decided heading over to some psychotic scientist was a good idea?"_

_The air turned even frostier than it usually was this time of year. "You don't care that much, or you wouldn't have disappeared for no reason last night!"_

_"I had a reason! I just can't..." He stopped. They weren't doing this. They couldn't be fighting._

_"Can't tell me? Can't trust me? Of course," Starfire mumbled sadly._

_"K...Star, it's not like that. If I told you...I don't think you'd ever talk to me again." Well, maybe he'd over dramatized it, but it could not have good consequences. Starfire just sighed._

_"Good night." She climbed down the ladder and ran off into the night._

Perfect_, Nightwing growled at himself, punching a nearby wall. _Just perfect! Now I bet she'll never talk to you again! It doesn't matter if you know, now, Star and Kory were the same before, and they always will be. Deal with it! She's still your girlfriend! She hasn't changed at all!

_Nightwing stopped, letting his anger seep away into exhaustion. _I have to make it up to her. As soon as possible.

* * *

Sorry it was such a short chapter, but it took me quite a while to write. Anyway, things REALLY start to heat up next chapter, this was just a filler. And there are three or four more chapters until this story's over, just a heads up. 


	12. Chapter 11

Thanks so much to **ThEnAmEsGiGi, tennisgal456, My Dreams are My Wings, SuPeR HyPeR chick 101, StarryNightT, cartoonfire, BerryDrops, Alien Emeral, shattered-hearts-602, Starsoffire, katara12171, Black Raven 13, RavenSis, Sta-R-obin, ChristianAndGatorGal, writing4eva, ArcaneAuthor, **and **so not telling** for reviewing!

I _really_ want to thank you all for reviewing. If you hadn't, I probably would've stopped writing (I guess my L.A. teacher'd be happy about that, and a lot of people on FF too) but I need to get better, so if you have any con-crit, don't hesitate! But I know where the story's going and I just needed help on what's written so far, not what they should do next. So please, ideas are not needed. And remember, if you don't get something, there is a reason why it's there, and the entire plot is not going to change for one person. Thanks.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

* * *

_"K...Star?" Nightwing began lamely. Already he was making mistakes. Just perfect._

_"Hello, Nightwing," Starfire answered dully, not looking at him, off in her own world._

_Nightwing thrust out his hand awkwardly. "Happy two-week anniversary," he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. Starfire eyed the bouquet of flowers in his hand with confusion. Then it dawned on her and she smiled a little._

_"Thank you." She kissed him softly on the lips, and he knew he was forgiven. _

_"That's not fair," he pouted after she pulled away._

_Starfire hesitated. "I'm sorry I didn't get you anything..."_

_Nightwing chuckled. "Not that. I think I deserve a longer kiss." She giggled and took the bouquet out of his hands, turning her face away. "Star!"_

_"Yes?"_

_"Look, it's Godzilla!"_

_"Wher--" Nightwing captured her lips in his own._

_"Cheater," she muttered in a break._

_"I do what I can." _

* * *

"Ooh! And the park! And the mall of shopping! And perhaps even the park-which-is-said-to-be-amusing-but-is-really-quite-terrifying-for-most-people!" Kory offered eagerly as an answer to how they could spend their Saturday afternoon.

Vic shrugged. "How about the arcade, y'all?"

"Yes-suh!" Gar yelled, pumping his fist in the air.

"Whatever," muttered Rachel.

Karen just sighed.

Dick glanced over at Kory's crestfallen form and declined. "Come on, guys, you wanted to ride that _Blazing Tiger _thing for a while now, haven't you?"

"Well..." considered Vic. "It IS the fastest, scariest, steepest, twisty-est, turny-est, highest..." He stopped listing features when Karen's eyes began to smoke. "Uh...coolest roller coaster around...I guess we could go. Why are you all staring at me like that? It was on the commercial!"

"And you memorized it?" Rachel questioned.

"Uh...no...?"

"Come on, Kory, let's get in the front of the car before these people crowd in," Dick interrupted.

"No way! No one's driving my baby except me!"

"Come on, Vic! Just once! Please? Pretty please?"

"NO, Gar!"

Eventually they piled in to Vic's SUV, his pride and joy. Kory and Dick had managed to land in the back, but at least they weren't next to Gar, who was desperately trying to get a truck driver to honk his horn and nearly ended up hitting Rachel with his elbow on many occasions. Karen and Vic were singing to the radio up in front. It was not a quiet ride.

After Gar had been threatened with his life a grand total of twenty-seven times, they arrived. Vic and Gar pulled their reluctant girlfriends to the deadly-looking roller coaster that Dick was sure they'd be crying all over by the time the ride was over. "You want to ride that, Kory?" Dick asked her.

"Very well," Kory answered nervously.

"Or...um, I'm too scared," he lied, noticing her fear. "How about something else? There's a map here."

"What is this?" Kory asked, pointing at the Tunnel of Love.

"Uh, that's scary too, let's not go there."

"How can it be scary? There are so many hearts!"

Dick closed his eyes and tried to banish the image of his last trip down the Tunnel of Love with one of his previous girlfriends. "Believe me, it's terrifying."

"OMG! It's Dick Grayson!" yelled a familiar voice. Dick whirled around. Where was Rachel when you needed her?

Three girls were rushing at him, their insanely long earrings and extensions flying out behind them. "Look, Mandy! OMG Dick, are you still single? You don't have a girlfriend, right? _Seventeen's _issue this month said you didn't but...OMG Dick, do you love me?"

"No he does NOT. You do not, yes?" Kory asked him.

Dick took a giant step backwards, hugging Kory close to him. It wasn't necessary, though, because the minute they noticed Kory after her outburst, the girls stopped in their tracks. "Who's she?" and "Where did _she_ come from?" and "That is the fakest tan I have ever seen! OMG you'd think she actually got it from the _sun_!" was heard all around.

"Dick? Why do they seem as though they do not like me?" Kory whispered to him.

"Uh...hold on, Kor." He had to get her out of this. Maybe she could save herself.

"Is _she_ your girlfriend?" Too late.

"_She_ has a name. And it's Kory," he answered coldly. "Now if you don't mind, I'm taking her to that"--hated--"Tunnel of Love thing. I'd appreciate it if you left us alone."

One of the girls flipped their dyed blonde hair. "Whatever. OMG do you think Zac Efron comes here, too?" Dick sighed as the giggling troupe bounced away. He might have to warn his buddy Zac about them...maybe he could get a restraining order, too.

"Did you truly wish to go on this ride, Dick? You are not scared?" Kory probed.

"Yeah. It's fine," he said shortly, pulling her along.

"Dick? Are you angry with me?" he heard her ask quietly. He stopped, sighing.

"I'm sorry, Kory. Girls like that get on my nerves...a lot. I didn't mean to take it out on you." Sh smiled at him, and he grinned back. "Come on, we're almost there." The area was littered with kissing couples, hugging couples, couples holding hands, and a lot of hearts, as Kory had put it earlier. Dick suddenly realized Kory wasn't following him anymore. "Kory?"

She had stopped a few feet away, her eyes averted. "Perhaps there is another ride that is more amusing."

"You don't want to go on this one anymore?"

Kory said nothing. How was she supposed to tell him that she hadn't known it was _that_ kind of love? That she hadn't known friends could ride? She loved her friends too, didn't she?

"I promise it's not that bad, Kory. It just...kinda depends on who you're with." He gave her a lopsided smile. _And I'm with my girlfriend...one that I actually LIKE._

"Oh..."

And then Dick made a huge mistake. He drew her in and kissed her. Only when he started to taste something salty did he know that something was wrong. He pulled away, only to see that Kory was crying. "Kory? What...?"

She broke away. "I am sorry...but I cannot."

Then, she ran.

* * *

Vic, Gar, Rachel, and Karen had all been on seven rides so far, and were about ready to throw up. The boys didn't show it, of course, but the abnormal green tinge gave it away. "Who wants to ride the _Doomcoaster_ again?" Gar groaned.

"Please, no," Karen begged. "Rachel and I are gonna go sit down somewhere..." Her cell phone began to ring. "Hey...what happened? Stay right there, we're all coming, Kory...it's okay, don't cry, honey. Give me your address...Yeah, talk to you soon, 'kay?" She flipped the phone closed, all sickness disappearing.

"What happened?" asked Rachel.

"There was someone in Kory's house."

* * *

_Starfire flew into her tiny home from the amusement park, sobbing uncontrollably. What was she supposed to tell Nightwing? This was terrible...more than terrible, she needed to be punished for it. She wiped away her tears and sat on her bed, dreading her meeting with Nightwing later. She couldn't lie and say it was an accident. Kory and Dick were bound to come together sooner or later. She had seen it, and she'd done nothing to stop it. Dick meant as much to her as Nightwing did, but how could she care for both Dick and Nightwing at once?_

_Something rustled in the room. Her head shot up, star bolts ready to use if necessary. It was a man. He was dressed in all black, the only thing showing were his cold, gray eyes. She grabbed the nearest heavy object she could find, a lamp, and thrust it at him._

_The man grunted, flying back and crashing into a wall. Her strength had definitely surprised him. "Stupid mutant!" he roared, his voice deep but muffled through the cloth over his face. "Don't fight!"_

_Mutant? How did he know...?_

_"No!" She raised her arm to punch him, but he kicked her stomach and she lost her balance. _

_"Mr. Roth knows where you are! He's coming for you! And if you don't come with me now, you won't survive the next time!" he yelled, grabbing her arm. Starfire twisted his hand off of her and threw him as hard as she could into a shelf. He lay there, panting, while she picked him up by the collar._

_"Who are you? How did you find me?" she screeched at him._

_The man said nothing, punching her in the gut and pushing off the ground to get away from her. Starfire coughed for air and then hurtled at him, catching him in the shoulder and sending him careening backwards. He recovered quickly, lunging at her, but she moved out of the way just in time. He crashed into the window sill, laying there for a second, eyes closed, as she approached cautiously. Suddenly, the man staggered up, gasping with pain. "Come quietly. No one has to get hurt. Mr. Roth wants his experiment back, Starfire," he sneered._

_"Never. I refuse to go back to him! He will kill me!"_

_"Yes, he will, if you refuse to join me. Your only chance of survival is to come with me right now. He will hide you, nothing else. Keep you undercover until this storm blows over..."_

_"Liar!" Starfire screamed. "He killed a little girl! He will kill me too, what difference does it make to him?" She lit a star bolt, seeing as it was useless to hide them now._

_The man just laughed. "Remember what I said. This was your last chance."_

_Before she could react to that statement, he swung himself up, crawling out of the window and into the evening. Starfire threw a star bolt after him, but missed, leaving a black burn mark on the wall._

_After a moment of shock at the sudden departure, Starfire sank down on to the bed, her fear consuming her completely. Roth Industries knew where she was. They were going to come and kill her so the government would never find her..._

_Shakily, she picked up the phone, and began dialing Dick's number. _

Wait...I cannot..._she reminded herself, blinking fresh tears away._

_She stopped, cleared it, and dialed Karen instead. _

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Dick! There you are!" called Karen. Dick didn't even notice her serious expression. He was too busy cursing at himself. He knew Kory and Starfire were the same, but she didn't know that Dick and Nightwing were. Idiot! How could he have been so stupid? "Dick, why in the world would you let Kory go home by herself?"

He ran his hands through his hair. "It's a long story, Karen..."

"Long story, my foot! There was someone in her house! She could've been killed!"

"What?" Dick was instantly done moping. "Is she okay? What happened? Who was it? Why are we all standing here? Let's go! Get in the car! Run!"

The five lost no time in zooming on to the highway, where Dick called Kory. "_Hello?_" she answered, her voice shaking with terror.

"Star, it's me, are you alright?"

"Star? Who the heck is Star, man?" Vic called from the front seat.

"_Who is this?_" she asked, as confused as everyone else. It was Dick's phone number...but Dick wouldn't call her 'Star'.

"It's me, Star. Nightwing."

"What?" asked Gar, voicing the thoughts of the thoroughly befuddled group. Dick shot him a glare, silencing the whole carful of people.

"_But...it is Dick's phone...X'hal, you are doing the pulling of my leg. Dick, you ARE Nightwing?_"

"Yeah, Star. Don't worry, all of us are gonna be there soon, okay? Just hold on."

"_Dick...Nightwing..._" Well, at least it would give her something to think about until they got to her house.

"You turn here," Karen instructed Vic, breaking the silence. They pulled up on a lonely, poorly kept street and into the driveway of a lonely, poorly kept house. "Oh God...this is where she lives?" Karen breathed, staring up at the dilapidated home.

Dick pushed open the car door before Vic had even parked it, and ran up the steps to the front of the house, banging on the door. "Kory? Kory, open up! It's us!"

"Dick?"

Dick had never seen Kory look so scared. He wrapped his arms around her, whispering in her ear, "It's okay, now, Kory. We're here. Nothing's going to happen to you." She was crying, crying hard. "No one's going to hurt you now, Kory, we won't let them."

"Kory? Kory, girl, are you okay?" The other four rushed up to them, anxiously patting Kory's back or stroking Kory's hair, trying to get their fair share of comfort in.

"Dick," she sniffed. "It was Roth Ind--" Kory cut herself off with a wave of sobs.

Dick swore, half-carrying her into the house. Everyone followed, alert and tense. "Dick...what does Rachel's dad have to do with any of this?" Gar asked solemnly. Dick glanced over at Rachel. She knew that he was in contact with her dad's experiment, but she didn't know who it was. The smart girl would have it pieced together soon, now, probably in the next five seconds or less.

"Kory, I think it's time to tell them. They have a right to know. We can all help you." Kory just nodded at him, refusing to let him go. He addressed the general population of the room, gesturing for them to sit down. "You all know that Roth Industries lost a factory around last fall. The thing is, there was an illegal experiment in that factory, and something went wrong. That experiment is...standing right next to me."

Gar and Vic were completely taken aback, but Rachel's expression had never changed. She had even figured out the rest of the story. "And now my father wants you back, Kory, am I right? He found out where you live and everything...I've seen him making calls to strange people. But how? You never gave us any hint that you were anything other than perfectly normal..."

Dick hesitated. This was the part he hadn't wanted to voice, unsure of whether their friends would accept her once they knew that she stole for a living. Karen began speaking, though, and it ruined any excuse he'd been planning. "That 'bird-lady' thing on the news not too long ago...that was you?" Kory nodded shamefacedly, separating from Dick and staring at the floor. "Oh wow, Kory...you use your...powers, I guess you'd call them, to save people? That's amazing! And you knew you might get caught by Mr. Roth, but you did it anyway to save those people in the building..." Karen was in awe.

"No! Not at all!" Kory interjected.

"Kory, just leave it--"

"I would not have gone in that building at all, if left to myself. You have heard of the thief, the 'arsonist' Starfire?" She lit a star bolt and laughed bitterly as the four took a step back out of shock. "That would be me as well."

The four friends were quiet. Who knew there was a bad side to their innocent Kory? "That's why you call her 'Star,' isn't it?" Vic asked finally.

"Yeah," Dick answered, rubbing her back soothingly. Kory refused to look at anyone, pretending that the bare floor was extremely fascinating.

"Why would you do this, Kory?" Gar asked, his tone carrying a slight hint of accusation. "Stealing from innocent people?"

"I had no choice," Kory mumbled, her eyes filling with tears. Why didn't she say anything about her choice to head on the straight and narrow from now on? What happened to whatever she promised Nightwing? Why didn't she tell them?

"Kory, it's wrong--" Karen began.

"I am aware of that!" Kory turned, wiping her tears away with the heel of her hand and preparing to leave the room when she stepped on something gloopy. It was her egg, which had smashed during the fight with the intruder. That just about did it. She ran into another room, slamming the door.

"Kory!" Dick yelled after her. He glared at the others. "Don't you think she's trying? Don't you think I'm trying to help her? It's not her fault your _dad_"--he pointed angrily at Rachel, one of the only people who hadn't actually accused Kory in the past five minutes--"took her entire _life_ away from her!" He followed her into the room, twisting open the unlocked door and closing it behind him. Kory was lying on a tiny bed, weeping into the pillow. "Kory? Hey. Don't cry. They don't mean it. They didn't know, Kor..."

He sat next to her, cradling her body in his arms. "For not knowing, they are remarkably in the right," she muttered, wriggling out of his grasp. "Perhaps I should have gone with this man, whomever he was. Then I would not be committing anymore--"

"Don't say that!" Dick grabbed her arms, moving his hands up to her cheeks when she wouldn't look at him. "Kory, promise me you won't do anything stupid like that." She flinched, and he knew he'd said the wrong thing, but at that moment, he didn't care. "Promise me, Kory. Please. They don't know anything, they had no right to say things like that--"

But Kory was too busy considering her options to listen. It was truly the best, for the hundreds of citizens she'd stolen from; for her friends, who'd trusted her only to find out what she'd been doing behind their backs; and for Dick. He wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. And it wasn't like she belonged on this Earth anyway. She was a freak, some kind of twisted mad scientist creation. And Mr. Roth had promised to hide her, hadn't he? Maybe the offer still held.

"I am sorry..." she whispered.

"Kory, hold on a second--"

"Dick, there is no other way, do you not see?"

"We can hide you somewhere, Kory! In one of our houses or something. Rachel's out, obviously, but how about Karen's?"

Kory shook her head sadly. "Dick, they do not want me here. And I am sure, deep down, you do not either. Hiding me in someone's home will only cause that person danger. If Mr. Roth could find me here, he could find me in another place, also."

"What do you mean, Kory? Of course we want you here! Kory, I _need_ you here. You can't just leave!" Dick was practically begging, but Kory's mind was made up. All because their 'friends' had to run their big mouths...Dick was going to kill them for making Kory cry like this, especially when she was so scared she couldn't think straight...because that was what the problem was, right? Kory would never, ever come to this decision if she was rational and calm, right?

"Please, Dick. Let go of me. I have no wish at all to hurt you."

"Kory, just think--"

"You will be better off. Please, Dick, could you not merely turn the other way? There is no need to argue. It would have come to this sooner or later."

"Then let it be later! I don't care! I'm not letting you go anywhere, Kory, I mean it! You're staying right--" Kory kissed him, warm and passionate, though her lips still tasted of her salty tears. He felt a sharp pain to the back of his head, but as his world faded slowly to black, he didn't care as long as Kory's lips never left his.

* * *

_Starfire stared down at her unconscious boyfriend, sure her sobs were loud enough to alert the other people in the house that something was not right with Dick and Kory's 'talk.' It was the last crime she'd ever commit, hopefully. "I am so sorry," she whispered to him, wiping off her tears as they fell on to his cheek. "Goodbye..."_

_She walked to the door, locking it in an attempt to buy more time when the others figured out that things were too quiet. Then, Starfire__ opened the window as quietly as she could, staring back at Dick one last time. How had she never made the connection that he and Nightwing were the same? There had been so much going on, maybe she'd been too distracted. She longed to crawl back by his side, shake him awake, run her hands through those thick, gorgeous locks and feel his strong arms around her, but she climbed out before she succumbed to the urge. This had to end. Tonight. _

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_"The message has been sent, Mr. Roth. Our agent, however, returned empty-handed," Jaques told Tristan._

_"Fine. But you had better have more news on this thing to report to me by tomorrow, or you're fired." 'Fired' could possibly be exchanged with the word 'murdered' in Tristan's vocabulary. Jaques just smiled._

_"I will, or rather, I do. Look who's outside your building, Mr. Roth."_

* * *

Good night... 


	13. Chapter 12

Hi! Sorry for the long wait.

This IS the last chapter, in case anyone was wondering and hadn't seen the 'complete' thingy. This was definitely fun to write, and I hope you guys liked it too! Thanks so much to **Starsoffire, MyxWorldxRewritten, skye668, cartoonfire, cartoonstar, tennisgal456, My Dreams Are My Wings, Sta-R-obi, RavenSis, SuPeR HyPeR chick 101, Sizzlin'-Starry-Night-sky, raeXXstarry, kjesStar, BerryDrops, StarryNightT, ChristianAndGatorGal, ThEnAmEsGiGi, Alien Emerald, **and** writing4eva** for the great reviews last chapter! And thanks to **mia **the anon. reviewer too!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.

* * *

_"What are you going to do to me? Where are you taking me?" Starfire asked fearfully. The man gripping her wrist smiled._

_"Nothing will happen to you. We are just...removing...any evidence of your mutation," he explained. Mutation...Dick never called it that. Was he okay? Would she ever see him again? The thought brought tears to her eyes. She already missed him so much. _

_"What do you mean, removing?"_

_"I mean, removing. You'll be happy about that, yes? I think you were unhappy about it at first."_

_Starfire gasped. "How do you know this?"_

_His smile grew slightly. "I have my ways."_

_He led her to a secluded room in the huge company. There was a small machine inside, connected to a computer by a cable. Another cable connected the object to a glass cylinder. Starfire was shoved to a corner of the room. "You might feel mildly uncomfortable. Don't worry about it. It'll pass."_

_He grabbed her hand. A needle glinted in his other one, and Starfire was instantly afraid, but she refused to show it. She winced as the needle pierced her skin, but the pain following it was so much worse._

_Jaques slapped tape over her mouth to keep her screams from penetrating the walls._

_

* * *

_"Dick?"

"Kory?" Dick murmured, stirring.

"Dick, it's Gar! Where's Kory? What happened? What's going on?"

"Kory!" Dick shot up, nearly headbutting Gar. "Kory's going back! We have to get her! Move! I can't believe you--" Dick's voice faded as he jumped up and ran out the door, leaving four breathless friends in his wake.

"Follow him," Rachel ordered.

* * *

Dick, with Rachel, Gar, Vic, and Karen in the same car, had broken all speed limits to get to Roth Industries as fast as possible. Kory was the only thought on his mind. He was far too worried to even yell at the others. If Kory wasn't okay...he didn't know what he would do.

As soon as Dick slammed on the brakes, the five of them busted out of the car. Vic didn't even complain about what was happening to 'his baby.' Yeah, it was that bad.

Dick nearly fainted as he heard Kory scream. "Ko--!" Rachel slapped a hand over his mouth.

"You're lucky it's past closing time! There are people here who'll hear you, Dick, and then we'll never get to her! It came from down the hallway," she hissed at him. Dick could barely contain himself, but he couldn't afford to endanger Kory.

The five of them quietly walked farther into the building. Dick clenched his fists, trying not to notice how eerie the company looked when it was empty. Another scream echoed out, but it was muffled and quieter. Vic clasped Dick's shoulder, but the bigger teen had never felt so scared. "We'd better hurry."

Dick opened the door closest to them. Empty. Rachel, Gar, Vic, and Karen opened four more in succession, but none of them held Kory. The screams, however, were getting closer. They tore into Dick's heart like a chainsaw. He pressed his ear to the second to last door in the hallway. His eyes widened. "She's here," he whispered.

"On three," muttered Karen.

They didn't even wait until one.

The five friends charged through the door to meet one surprised middle-aged man and Kory herself. She had never looked worse. Her face was pale and sweaty, her eyes bloodshot and rolling crazily as the machine connected to her did whatever it was supposed to do. A piece of duct tape covered her mouth, but that didn't stop her shrieks of pain. A cylinder next to her was slowly filling with red liquid, not blood, but brightly glowing. The man was controlling whatever was happening to her on a computer. Dick needed to shut it off.

He and Vic immediately went for the man, punching him into the wall. Vic tried to figure out the computer, but too late they realized the man was calling security. "Mallah! Intruders! Room 219!" Rachel, Karen, and Gar each made a grab for the walkie-talkie he had. Karen wrestled it out of his hands just as a beast of a man, whom they assumed was Mallah, appeared at the door. Four surprised security guards stood at his side.

"Hurry, Vic!"

The guards stomped into the room, taking out as many people as possible. One took out a gun and pointed it at Dick, yelling a threat. Dick fended his attacker off with a well-aimed punch to the face. Surprised for a second, the guard refused to underestimate him again. He was definitely bigger than the teenager he had been facing, but Dick was well practiced in dodging fangirls, some of whom had been on the high school girl's wrestling team.

Vic was too busy trying to not get captured, and had no time to figure out how to get Kory out of that contraption. Dick sprinted over, nearly crying at the confusing amount of controls. His guard came tackling at him, and he accidentally pressed a green button. The red substance in the cylinder began to decrease. Dick had a terrible suspicion that he'd injected it back into Kory's body.

He swore, grabbing the guard's shoulders and shoving him into Rachel's attacker. One of the guard's guns went off, blasting a hole in the wall. Rachel mouthed a "thanks" to Dick and left the room, with Jaques following her. Dick didn't even care as to where she was going. His only purpose was to stop the terrible soundtrack Kory was providing.

Vic and Mallah were in a wrestle to keep the gun pointed at a safe spot. Gar and Karen had teamed up, desperately trying to keep the security distracted enough to _not_ shoot them. Dick hustled over to the control panel and slammed a large red button, the universal control for 'operation aborted.' Sure enough, the computer shut off, and Kory sagged, quiet. He grabbed her before she fell, wincing as he gently removed a needle from her hand. "Kory?"

"Dick?" she murmured. He didn't even get to answer before she fainted. They needed to leave, to get her to a hospital or something, but that wasn't an option right now, especially when all four guards, plus Mallah, were completely focused on keeping Kory away from Dick. They all headed towards him, guns raised, and everyone was so quiet, a dropped pin could've echoed.

"Give us the mutant," Mallah snarled, advancing slowly.

"No," Dick growled back. His eyes searched for an exit, but there was none. He hid Kory behind himself, eyes begging for Karen and VIc and Gar to save her, but they were out of reach, past the wall of armed men.

"You will hand it over NOW," Mallah ordered.

"NEVER."

Dick saw Vic whispering to Karen and Gar, and the three of them nodded at him. "DICK, DUCK!" Vic yelled, his hands chopping down between the shoulder blades of two different security guards. Dick squatted on the floor, making sure Kory was completely covered, as gunshots rang out everywhere. Karen and Gar did the same, and within seconds, all five guards lay motionless.

"Run," Karen advised.

Dick carried Kory and bolted out of the company, with his friends following. "Vic, how'd you do that?" Gar asked in awe as they stepped into the twilight.

"Little trick I learned from Rachel's old bodyguard," Vic explained grimly.

"Rachel! We can't leave without her! Where is she?" cried Gar.

Dick frowned, trying to remember where she had gone. She hadn't told him. "Listen. Karen, you stay out here with Kory, and the rest of us'll--"

"Uh uh! What if you need me? I'm not waiting out here while y'all get your butts kicked!"

"We can't just leave Kory lying around!" Dick argued.

"Guys, Rachel..."

Vic hoisted Kory up on his shoulder. "Come on, y'all. Might as well get two rescue missions done tonight. Move!"

And they went back into the building.

* * *

_Rachel hurried to an elevator, repeatedly pressing the button until the doors opened. She hit the "15th floor" button and a slow ride took her up. The elevator music seemed drastically out of place in such a situation. Her foor tapped impatiently, knowing that her friends would come looking for her sooner or later, and that would probably get them killed. _

_Her elevator dinged, and she raced out, towards giant oak doors. They pushed open easily, with a perfect view of the person sitting in a desk near the window of the office. "Dad," she spat. Tristan Roth looked up._

_"Rachel. So. You and your friends are the intruders trying to get my experiment back, are you?" Tristan was completely calm, almost smiling._

_"She is our friend."_

_"How does that concern me?"_

_"Call off your guards. We already beat four of them!" Rachel hissed angrily. She really had no idea, but it sounded more impressive than 'we're holding for off them off, but pretty close to getting beaten up.' Tristan chuckled nonetheless._

_"And I thought you were smart. At this very moment I have every security guard I own within thirty miles coming to this building. In less than five minutes, about twenty of them will be here and your friends will be outnumbered. I must say, I'm very impressed with how skilled teenagers are these days. Who says America is obese and lazy?" Tristan opened a drawer in his desk. Something glinted in his hand, something black and shiny. "What a shame. You showed promise for a good CEO when I died, you know. You just made bad choices."_

_Rachel took a step back as her father threatened to kill her. "You wouldn't."_

_"Really? Do you know exactly how many people I have ordered to be murdered? Do you think it makes a difference to me whether I kill my mistake of a kid or not?" She heard a click, and her mind fuzzed with fear. As soon as her friends got here, would he do the same to them? "Good bye, Rachel."_

_

* * *

_"Good bye, Rachel." As soon as they burst into the room, Gar ran and tackled Tristan Roth, sending the older man flying.

"Don't you _dare_ threaten my girlfriend!"

Tristan growled and hit a button on his desk. "Security!"

Kory groaned on Vic's shoulder. "Dick?"

Vic handed her to Dick and blocked the door so no one else could get in while Gar and Tristan wrestled for the gun. "Hey, Kory. It's okay now. We've got you."

"Phone," she muttered. He frowned, but pressed his cell into her hands. She flipped it open and dialed nine-one-one, weakly lifting the phone to her ear. "Help...Roth Industried...please..." Her voice failed her and her hand dropped. Dick caught the phone before it hit the ground and shifted Kory in his arms.

"How are you feeling?"

She nodded, unable to talk.

"Hang in there, Kory. We'll get you out of here as soon as Rachel decides she wants to leave." Dick glared at Rachel, who was too busy staring around the room to notice him. Someone banged hard on the door, and it was taking all of Vic's strength to keep the door shut. He was blasted out of the way a few seconds later and the door came down to reveal a horde of guards. Following them was a squad of policemen.

Everyone was confused.

"Hands up!" the police ordered. The security guards listened, but Tristan growled at them.

"Do not listen!"

This was going to get messy.

Shots were fired all around. Dick watched in horror as his friends were lost somewhere in the crossfire. "Kory..."

"I will be fine. Go," Kory urged him, making herself as small as possible. Dick was loathe to leave her, but he had no choice. "Dick? I am sorry."

"For what, Kory?"

She didn't have a chance to respond. Something smll and fast whizzed by his head and grazed his shoulder. Dick slapped his hand over the burning cut as Kory cried out. "It's fine, Kory, just a scratch. I have to go." They excahnged one last look and he left to bring his friends to safety.

The policemen were desperately trying to dissuade the guards from using guns, but Tristan's party wasn't about ready to give up. They got paid for keeping Tristan safe. The CEO was trying to leave the room with something in his hands. Rachel stopped him, pulling back his arm. "Give it to me!"

"Let go of me!" Tristan roared at her. He shook her off and dodged through the line of policemen. One of the cops caught him.

"Stay here, Mr. Roth. No one is cleared yet." He started speaking into his walkie-talkie, requesting for backup.

Dick saw Vic trying to protect Karen and Gar on the other side of the room. They were pressed up into a wall, where most bullets couldn't find them. For the moment, they were safe.

More police officers poured in, breaking up the fighting. Tristan was outnumbered. It was over.

* * *

"We're gonna need all of you to come to the station with us for questioning," an officer told them grimly. Two injured cops had already been carted off to the hospital, and security guards were being arrested for firing on a police officer. Tristan was waiting with Rachel, trying to convince the police that his daughter was a juvenile delinquent while Rachel heatedly argued.

"Officer, she'd hurt," Dick said, pointing at Kory. His girlfriend stood up shakily. A throbbing pain still remained, and she felt sick to her stomach. Her head hurt more than anything from the forceful purging of xenothium from her body. But it had lessened, slightly, when Dick had accidentally pressed the button that reversed the flow of xenothium back inside of her. For a few seconds while Jaques was operating the machine, it had felt like the Starfire half of her was being ripped away.

"I am fine."

The policeman stared at her. "Don't I know you?"

"Sergeant Dave!" she remembered before collapsing on to Dick.

"Kory, you're _not_ fine. We need to get you to a hospital," Dick told her. Kory's eyes widened and she shook her head. "Kory, it's over. Mr. Roth can't hurt you anymore. Come on."

"Please, Dick...I wish to go home."

Sergeant Dave looked her over and then addressed Dick. "What happened here, son?"

Dick glanced around at Kory, ready to faint again; his friends, terrified out of their minds; and Mr. Roth, who should have gone to jail years ago. There was no point in telling a lie. He explained the whole story to Sergeant Dave, from the beginning, everything that he knew. Kory helped out where she could.

"If this is true," the sergeant said slowly, "Then Mr. Roth isn't the only one who is gonna be doing time, Miss Anders."

Kory let goof Dick and looked away, ashamed of herself, every bit of her concentration focused on standin upright. "I understand."

"You can't!" Dick burst in. "She's hurt, you have to take her to a hospital!"

"Dick, I am fine!" she interjected forcefully, trying not to sway.

The policeman's eyes softened. "If she can prove to me that this won't ever happen again--"

"What if _I_ can prove it to you? I _know_ Kory won't ever do this again. She wouldn't have even stolen in the first place if it hadn't been for Tristan!" Dick spat the name. Kory tried to back up, but only ended up stumbling. She didn't deserve this defense. She deserved to be locked up for ten years, and then maybe deported to some small, remote country.

"That wasn't her only choice, son."

"What else, an orphanage?"

"Well, yes. Jump City has a fine--"

"Don't talk to me about that," Dick said coldly. "If it's anything like Gotham's, it's almost as bad as the streets. I think I would know."

The matter was settled soon after that. Kory was to have a trial, as was Tristan Roth. Kory would be allowed to go home, but the police department had to know exactly where she lived. Dick offered to drive her home, but Kory declined.

"I wish to be alone," she said softly to no one in particular before walking off.

* * *

_Starfire wished she'd never been born. Her friends were right to be ashamed of her. She hadn't done anything right since the second she'd blown up Tristan's factory. Even there, she'd unknowingly killed so many people. Her eyes overflowed with tears. _

_She would wait until the day of the trial. As soon as it was over, if she wasn't found guilty, she would leave the country. And if she was, well, jail time was just as good as a punishment. She could never show her face to her friends again._

_Starfire took out a pen and paper and began to write._

**_Dear Rachel, Karen, Vic, Gar, and Dick,_**

**_I am so, so sorry you were burdened with a criminal for a friend. You are all very kind people, and most certainly did not deserve it..._**

**_

* * *

_**Dick sat listlessly on the edge of his bed, watching an injured turtle slowly crawl to its food bowl. "Hey, Dick. What's wrong? We're all alive!" Gar pointed out. Dick sighed and stood up.

"I'm going to go see Kory."

"Can I come?"

Dick bit back a 'no.' He wanted to be alone with her, maybe then she would truthfully answer why she was so miserable. "How about I drop you off at Rachel's?"

"Alright. I guess she's doing pretty bad, too. I mean, her dad just tried to kill her...and then he got arrested..."

* * *

The bell rang, and Kory wiped away her tears. Who else would visit her at this time of night? Reluctantly, she opened the door to find Dick standing there. "Dick, I really must ask you to--"

"Kory, hold on."

"But I wish to be alone, Dick--"

"I don't want you to be alone." He invited himself inside. "How are you?"

"Wonderful," she muttered.

Dick gathered her up in his arms, but she pulled away. "Stop! Why must you continue to believe I am innocent even after all this has happened? I should have gone to jail!" she said angrily.

"Do you honestly think I would've made them leave you alone if I thought you would steal again, Star?" he asked her quietly. "I know what happens when there are criminals on the loose, firsthand. You aren't one of those people." He caught her hand, pullin her closer to him, but she still wouldn't believe him. "I'd trust you with my life. Heck, I _love_ you. And I need you to understand when I say that there is nothing wrong with you, at all. You won't ever steal again, if given the chance. You're too kind and caring to hurt anyone." He pressed his lips to hers, and smiled when she relaxed. "Although you pack a pretty good punch."

Kory's hands flew to her mouth. "Dick, I--"

"Hey, I'm kidding." He caressed her cheek. "No one's holding anything against you, Kory."

"But they said--"

"They didn't mean it," he interrupted, his voice firm. "Not one of them. They'd say the same thing I did, Kory. They're just waiting for the OK to get down here and tell you themselves."

Kory wasn't sure she wanted to give that OK, but she didn't really have much of a choice. "Things will not smooth over very easily..."

"I'll be here until they do, right?" He smiled at her. "I want to see you happy again, Kory..." HIs smile turned decidedly evil. "Whatever it takes..." His hand crept onto her side.

"Whatever it takes?" Kory asked fearfully. "What extent is that, exactly?"

"This!" Something Kory hadn't noticed before dropped out of his other hand as he began a full tickle attack. Kory shrieked and laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks. She collapsed on the couch, slapping his hands away, but he followed her down. There was only one way to stop him...sure enough, the minute her lips touched his, he forgot what he was supposed to be doing.

"It was there...I saw it," Dick murmured into her hair after they broke apart. Kory cuddled into his chest.

"I love you," she sighed happily. Dick stroked her hair affectionately.

"Before I forget, Kory...Rachel got something for you. She thought it might help..." Dick retrieved the heavily paper-clipped object from the floor.

"X'hal..."

It was a folder. On the front was stamped 'PROJECT STAR.'

* * *

And that's it!

I didn't really want to do the trial, 1) because you all probably know the outcome, 2) because it would take too long, and 3) because it would probably end up sounding weird because I've never been to one. So yeah...

Thanks again, you guys! And expect some story about the Titans in Egypt in the near future! (Thanks if you voted on that poll, too, it's still up there, if you want to vote.)

-HPFan1994


End file.
